Systematic review of intervention programs to reduce children’s aggressive behavior

Abstract

Children’s aggressive behaviors become worrisome to the extent that indicate possible instances of other disruptive disorders, difficulty in relationships with peers, school and parents, and low social skills. As a result, preventive interventions can be performed with damage reduction purposes and expanding repertoire of prosocial behavior. This study aimed to identify in the literature group interventions aimed to minimize and prevent aggressive behavior in children between 6 and 12 years, in the years 2006-2016, in electronic databases PsycINFO, PubMed and LILACS. After searching the databases, and the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, 22 articles were selected, which were analyzed from the following categories: general aspects of the study, strategies and interventional techniques and evaluation of the effectiveness of programs. The results indicated that few studies that have focused exclusively on the reduction and prevention of aggressive behavior were performed in the international and Brazilian scene. The programs also showed unrepresentative samples, lack of evidence of effectiveness, low methodological rigor in the assessments, use of inaccurate instruments and difficulties regarding the generalization of results. This systematic review pointed out, then, the need for more scientific effort to empirically seek the effectiveness of interventions focused on reduction of child aggressive behavior.

Keywords: aggressive behavior, child, intervention.