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Research Design
2009-2010 & 2010-2011 During these two years, we focused on primary school students (Grade 4 to Grade 6). From 2009 to 2010, we investigated proactive aggressors as the targeted students. From 2010 to 2011, we investigated reactive aggressors as the targeted students. We followed a rigorous experimental design in this study. Internationally used scales with high reliability and validity were applied to assess and screen out high-risk aggressors, who we investigated repeatedly. Before the intervention, the students were required to complete the first assessment (pre-test) as a baseline to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. This also helped us evaluate their suitability to participate in the group intervention. About one semester after the intervention, the students completed the next assessment (post-test). Three months, six months and one year after the intervention, the students were also required to complete assessments as follow-up tests. This helped us empirically investigate the changes to the students after the intervention using quantitative and qualitative assessments Intervention Groups The three types of group interventions were the child group intervention, parent group intervention and parent-child conjoint group intervention. These group interventions aimed to reduce aggressive behaviour and improve parenting style to establish healthy parent-child relationships. High-risk aggressors were randomly assigned to one of these group interventions. However, some parents could not attend the parent group intervention or the parent-child conjoint group intervention as scheduled. Accordingly, we assigned the children of these parents to the child group intervention, and arranged for other students with the same level of aggression to fill in the vacancies in the parent group or parent-child conjoint group interventions.
Control Group To evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions, a child control group and a parent control group were included in this study for comparison with the child group and parent group interventions. However, there was no conjoint control group. The effectiveness of the parent-child conjoint group intervention was evaluated by comparing the child group and parent group interventions. The parents and children in the control groups were assigned to small groups that were not related to bullying or violence, such as a group discussing study motivation and a group designed to enhance the parents’ self-understanding. Experiment Design
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