Problem Behaviors in Middle Childhood : Understanding Risk Status and Protective Factors / Cynthia Hudley.

Findings from the first round of evaluation of an afterschool youth development program are presented. This program, the 4H Afterschool Activity Program, incorporated a specific curriculum of aggression reduction, the BrainPower program, into its ongoing activities, which cover a wide range from homework assistance to arts and crafts. The BrainPower curriculum is a systematic application of principles of attribution theory. The experimental group for this study consisted of 50 children, aged 7 to 11 years, from 2 Los Angeles housing projects. A comparison group of 40 children did not participate in the afterschool program. Teacher and parent ratings of aggressive behavior were collected, and children's intentionality beliefs and beliefs about aggression were assessed with an instrument designed for this research. Data support the characterization of a supervised program of activities as a protective factor in the face of high rates of community crime. Afterschool program participants were perceived by teachers and parents to display fewer problem behaviors, and the differences between experimental and comparison groups increased over the 6-month study. (Contains 29 references.) (SLD)

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