Teaching Anger Management Skills to Students with Severe Emotional or Behavioral Disorders

A 10-session anger management program using a whole-class format was offered in a therapeutic day school for early adolescents with serious emotional or behavioral problems. Booster sessions to help students maintain achieved gains were integral to the program. Participants exhibited a reduction in peer fighting, an increase in talking things out with a counselor when angry, and an increase in using anger logs. At the 4-month follow-up, students who received booster sessions continued to make more use of the log than all of the other students. The researchers concluded that more students with difficulties were reached by this approach than small groups would have afforded. Students with such serious behavioral problems may need a program with more intensive staff support and fewer time restrictions to maintain behavioral gains.