Anger and Violence Prevention: Enhancing Treatment Effects through Booster Sessions

This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of booster sessions on the maintenance of intervention gains following an anger management prevention program: Student Created Aggression Replacement Education Program (SCARE). Participants who had completed the SCARE program a year earlier were randomly assigned into either a booster treatment or treatment as usual. Several scales focusing on anger (State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2/STAXI-2) and empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index /IRI) measured treatment effectiveness pre and post participation in booster sessions. The SCARE booster program appears to have promise for maintaining and increasing treatment effects for the original fifteen-session program, particularly with regards to trait anger and empathy. Suggestions are made for the inclusion of booster sessions to enhance efficacy of interventions designed to decrease youth violence and aggression and maintain school retention.