Treatment and maintenance of social learning family therapy

Abstract

Social learning treatment of childhood aggression within a family model has yielded encouraging results. The present study examined 56 families with an aggressive target child to determine whether treatment would reduce aggressive child behaviors and whether reductions would maintain for a year. Also, baseline variables were used to predict the success of treatment at termination and followup. There was a significant reduction of aggressive behavior, the treatment effect generalized to siblings and mothers, and treatment success was maintained through a 12-month follow-up. A stepwise multiple regression analysis of target child behavior rate changes from baseline to termination indicated that aggressive behavior rate and target child school problems were variables predictive of success of the social learning model.