Recent highly publicized incidents of youth violence with fatal outcomes have been a real wake-up call to the severity of violence among our youth. While there have been earlier incidents of deadly minority youth violence in urban areas, it is the recent violence perpetrated by white, non-urban youth that has captured the attention of mainstream America. The importance of the findings in The Effects of Primary Division, Student-mediated Conflict Resolution Programs on Playground Aggression, by Charles E. Cunningham, Lesley J. Cunningham, Vince Martorelli, Ann Iran, Julie Young, and Rose Zacharias (J. Child Psychol. Psychiat. Vol. 39, pp. 653-662, 1998) is that it produced encouraging results about early intervention (conflict mediation) in schoolyard aggression among children between the ages of 4 and 10 years.
The study examined a student-mediated conflict resolution program and its effects on grade school aggression on the playground. Three schools, in varying demographic regions and with about 400 students each, volunteered to participate in the program. Teams of fifth grade students were trained in mediation according to a model developed in 1997 by Cunningham, Cunningham and Martorelli and mediation was used on the playground of the three schools. The findings showed a 90 percent success rate by those with mediation training in that they were able to resolve playground conflicts upon intervention. Further, the findings suggest that the mediation program reduced physically aggressive behavior by 51-65 percent.
I was particularly impressed by the fact that the intervention was made by peers, the folks who are actually most proximal to the aggressive behavior on the playground, and who have significant influence on school behavior. There was one area that I found confusing, and hope that the authors would be able to clarify. Though the authors stated that it was not possible to reliably identify verbal/relational aggression, and therefore only physical aggression was coded, the article later stated that "conflicts and aggressive behavior without physical contact were coded as verbal/relational."
In my own work with aggressive children, I have found that intervening in the verbal/relational sphere of aggression is critical in preventing the escalation to physical aggression. It was reassuring to learn that the educators who assumed supervisory and back-up roles were enthusiastic about this intervention. It is one that can be realistically implemented in the naturalistic schoolyard setting.
The strength of this study lies not only in the relative simplicity of the protocol it offers, but in the strength of the empirical data it contributes to the study of youth violence. That the reduction in physical violence persisted one year later lends credibility to the program. This program offers real promise to stem the tide of youth aggression and violence.
Garry L. Landreth, Ed.D. is internationally known for his writings and work in promoting the development of play therapy. Dr. Landreth is a Regents Professor in the Department of Counseling at the University of North Texas and Director of the Center for Play Therapy, the largest play therapy training program in the world. Dr. Landreth's more than 80 publications include 10 books and the award-winning, PLAYTHERAPY: THE ART OF THE RELATIONSHIP.
