The Coping Power Program for Children with Aggressive Behavior Problems

Abstract

Flexible adaptations of the Coping Power Program have been made for the delivery of the program. Coping Power is a structured, manualized cognitive-behavioral program, with components for children and parents designed to alter targeted mechanisms that contribute to children’s aggressive behavior problems. The program originated as a targeted prevention program, delivered in school settings, but also has been applied and tested in clinical settings. The contextual social-cognitive model is described, followed by a brief description of program components, of fidelity assessment, and of results from several initial randomized controlled efficacy studies. The bulk of the chapter describes two types of adaptations of the program. The first adaptation is evident in a field trial study of real-world school counselors’ use of the program, and was affected by the intensity of training that counselors received and by their own characteristics and the characteristics of their work setting. Appropriate and inappropriate adaptions were observed, with appropriate adaptations illustrating the concept of flexibility within fidelity. The second type of adaptation involves efforts to optimize the program and to test planned changes. The chapter describes evaluations of planned adaptations to the length of the program (including Internet components), to program targets through inclusion of mindfulness training, to delivery of the program in group versus individual formats, and to a variety of changes made in the structure and cultural relevance of the program in international adaptations.