Study
The Sispass-Herrmann (2000) study examines the effects of the Student-Created Aggression Replacement Education (SCARE) Program as facilitated by senior citizen volunteers. The participants consisted of 194 sixth-grade students between the ages of 10 and 12 in a California middle school. These students were randomly assigned within classrooms to the SCARE Program treatment group, or to the comparison Enter Here program group. The Enter Here program is a video-based vocational exploration program, delivered in 16 sessions, and is designed to help students think about their interests and ideas in terms of future employment. The goal of the program is greater career self-efficacy and maturity. The sessions typically consisted of two video presentations of certain careers with a facilitator-led discussion of each. The facilitators were also trained senior citizen volunteers.
The sample is described as multi-ethnic, with an approximate racial makeup of 80 percent white, 15 percent Hispanic, and 5 percent other ethnicity students. Due to attrition and sample refining, the final sample consisted of 172 adolescents, of which 53 percent were female. Students with learning disabilities or whose primary language was not English language were not included. The final sample included 87 students in the SCARE Program treatment group and 85 students in the Enter Here program comparison group.
The comparison group in this study received the Enter Here program during the time period where their treatment group classmates received the SCARE Program intervention. These interventions were delivered separately in groups of 8–12 students during their Physical Education classes, twice a week for 8 weeks. Pretests measures were collected from the students at the beginning of the intervention, with post-tests collected at the end of the 8-week treatment, and a follow-up collected 8 weeks after the end of the intervention.
The senior citizen facilitators were trained in two 4-hour sessions before the intervention and received a 2-hour booster session at the mid-point of the intervention. Facilitators were paired in order for two to be present at every training. Should one trainer not be available, a substitute could be contacted to help facilitate the session. Although facilitators were not randomized, the author includes a detailed outcome analysis of the intervention experience for the senior citizens, which is not discussed in this review.
The author uses the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory instrument to measure the State Anger, Trait Anger, and Anger Control of the student participants. Results were measured using Multivariate Analysis of Variance. The study author did not conduct subgroup analyses.
