Abstract
Coping Power (CP) is an evidence-based preventive intervention for youth with disruptive behavior problems. This study examined whether Mindful Coping Power (MCP), a novel adaptation which integrates mindfulness into CP, enhances program effects on children’s reactive aggression and self-regulation. A pilot randomized design was utilized to estimate the effect sizes for MCP versus CP in a sample of 102 child participants (fifth grade students, predominantly low-middle income, 87% Black). MCP produced significantly greater improvement in children’s self-reported dysregulation (emotional, behavioral, cognitive) than CP, including children’s perceived anger modulation. Small to moderate effects favoring MCP were also observed for improvements in child-reported inhibitory control and breath awareness and parent-reported child attentional capacity and social skills. MCP did not yield a differential effect on teacher-rated reactive aggression. CP produced a stronger effect than MCP on parent-reported externalizing behavior problems. Although MCP did not enhance program effects on children’s reactive aggression as expected, it did have enhancing effects on children’s internal, embodied experiences (self-regulation, anger modulation, breath awareness). Future studies are needed to compare MCP and CP in a large scale, controlled efficacy trial and to examine whether MCP-produced improvements in children’s internal experiences lead to improvements in their observable behavior over time.
Highlights
Coping Power (CP) is an evidence-based preventive intervention for preadolescent children with disruptive behavior problems [1]
Thirteen randomized controlled trials have shown that CP has beneficial effects for children exhibiting elevated levels of aggressive behavior, producing lower rates of children’s substance use, aggression, and delinquency in later adolescence compared to children in control groups, and in improving children’s social competence and academic functioning
The current study examined whether optimizing CP by infusing it with mindfulness enhances program effects over and above standard CP on children’s reactive aggression and its active mechanisms
Summary
Coping Power (CP) is an evidence-based preventive intervention for preadolescent children with disruptive behavior problems [1]. Based on a contextual social-cognitive model of risk for aggression and substance use, CP targets mediating child (social cognition, anger coping) and family (parenting) processes [2]. CP’s preventive effects on delinquent behavior and substance use are evident four years after intervention [3]. Despite its strong evidence base, CP’s effects have been more mixed on reactive aggression than on proactive aggression. Coping Power had effects on reactive aggression at a three-year follow-up [4], but only had effects on reactive aggression at immediate postintervention in one of two studies [5,6]. Coping Power had significant effects on proactive aggression at both follow-up and immediate post-intervention in these three studies. The current study was undertaken to maximize CP’s effects on reactive aggression
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