Effects of Customized Aggression Reduction Interventions with Male Adolescents: A Single-Case Research Design

Aggression during adolescence can lead to unhealthy outcomes. Prior research suggests that youth with disruptive behaviors filter information in a distorted manner and struggle with social information processing skills. Teaching effective social processing skills can help reduce aggressive behaviors. The current study aimed to investigate the effects of customized aggression interventions on adolescent males. We used a theory-informed framework to guide the development of the interventions using an N = 1/ABA single-case research design with four male adolescents aged 13–14 who volunteered to participate in our study. A female licensed clinical mental health counselor designed and delivered the interventions and collected the outcome data. Participants completed a series of temporal assessments examining proactive, reactive, and total aggression. We hypothesized that customized interventions would be an effective means to address and reduce problematic aggressive behaviors. The data produced small to large effect sizes for three of the four participants, and statistically significant differences were observed between phases. The results have implications for the contributions of utilizing social information processing theory-informed customized aggression interventions with adolescents using single-case research design methodology.