Child-centred environments to limit early aggression (Childhood Aggression Prevention (CAP) Project) progress report: presented to the Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation

Abstract

A growing body of evidence indicates that early intervention may be most effective in preventing the high health and social costs of violence, victimisation, and other outcomes of aggression. The Childhood Aggression Prevention (CAP) Project is a trial of a new classroom-based intervention designed to prevent problems associated with aggression and other problem behaviours in early-primary years students. The intervention was developed through a review of established and previously-evaluated programs with similar aims and through a formative study conducted previously by the Child Health Promotion Research Centre. The CAP Project aims to reduce overt physical and verbal aggression, but also to reduce social (or relational) aggression, to promote prosocial behaviours and empathy. The intervention targets five primary areas: (1) explicit learning opportunities to support emotion regulation and social competence amongst children; (2) preventive strategies to promote pro-social goals amongst children and to limit peer exclusion and rejection, which can lead to increases in aggressive behaviour; (3) strategies to enable school staff to self diagnose and address relational problems with difficult students, which can entrench behaviour problems; (4) strategies for how schools can support parents of children with problem behaviours; and (5) effective proactive and reactive responses to incidents of anger and/or aggression