He stresses: "... anger is not an experience that occurs in isolation. Rather, it occurs in the context of an individual's personality. As such, it is influenced by needs, attitudes, perceptions, and emotions. (Golden, 2003, p. 5) In the short review, "Anger management class ends in melee," (2004) published in Curriculum Review, an unidentified staff writer reports an incident that mirrors the need for counters to today's anger concerns:

an anger-management workshop at Baltimore's Woodlawn High end in a brawl involving parents and 750 students. As several students modeled conflict-resolution tactics onstage during the assembly, a parent accused a group of teens in the audience of harassing her child. The accusations led to a shoving match, and then things really got out of control. Police made two arrests in connection with the incident and 11 students faced suspensions, the Baltimore Sun reports. ("Anger management class," 2004, ¶ 1)

The comment, "People were... fighting about stupid stuff," ("Anger management class," 2004, ¶ 2)

Adult Therapy for Adolescents in his study, Cognitive Programs: Coming of Age in Corrections, Barry Glick, Ph.D., NCC, a national consultant on juvenile justice and youthful offenders in adult prisons, focuses primarily on therapy for adult criminals. Principals covered, albeit, also appear appropriate for adolescents and their challenges with anger management. Glick (2003, ¶ 1) discusses two theoretical foundations, aptly-researched with "rich" program implementation. He notes that "Aron Beck, a psychiatrist working with the mentally ill, first introduced cognitive restructuring." Cognitive restructuring, Glick, (2003, ¶ 1) explains constitutes a process where individuals are instructed to assess their personal feelings, thoughts, attitudes and beliefs to identify new thinking, in turn reducing their risk behaviors.

Albert Ellis, who developed the initial implementation of Beck's influential work, introduced Rational Behavior Therapy (RET), a theory which applies Beck's cognitive process to an individual's behavior. This therapy is used regularly with students in school settings. RET, a structured process helps individuals rationally deal with problems which "live' within their affective domain. (Glick, 2003, ¶ 1) (Glick, 2003, ¶ 3) relates information related to Cognitive kills Programs, citing Albert Bandura."..as the father of the cognitive skills programs, which are based on his work in social learning." Bandura purposed that individuals learn as they model what they view others do and, in turn acquire skills by trying, through role-play situations, what they have seen.

Arnold P. Goldstein designed 60 skills' series to teach pro-social behaviors to deinstitutionalized mentally ill individuals and then his later work was applied to work with adolescents and included specific behavioral issues such as anger management. (Glick, 2003, ¶ 3-4)

Goldstein's cognitive skills principles were also applied to Donald Meichenbaum and Robert W. Novaco techniques to control angry outbursts in a variety of populations. Strategies to reduce anger included:

Deep breathing

Counting backward

Pleasant imagery. T

These principles and strategies were consequently included in programs dealing with aggression and violence. "Eva Feindler developed one such program at Hofstra University in New York.... An anger control program for preschool children who exhibited severe aggression and hostility." The Anger Behavior Cycle Feindler introduced served as a basis for helping children learn elements that comprise their anger. (Glick, 2003, ¶ 4)

Conflict Resolution

In the study completed by Christina J. Borbely, Julia a. Graber, Tracy Nichols, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Gilbert J. Botvin (2005), "Sixth Graders' Conflict Resolution in Role Plays with a Peer, Parent, and Teacher," the authors note that conflict situations for teens "can be particularly demanding because they require using multiple social skills simultaneously when the adolescent is personally invested in a social interaction." (Borbely, Graber, Nichols, Brooks-Gunn, & Botvin (2005), ¶ 1) Their investigation considers "the role of method, context, and social skills in adolescent conflict resolution." The authors' initial goal incorporated the development and coding of role play vignettes for various interpersonal contexts. Conflict situations included realistic interactions with a parent; peer; teacher and allowed the adolescent to experience normative interactions. (Borbely, Graber, Nichols, Brooks-Gunn, & Botvin (2005), ¶ 7) the authors contend their study:

Fills numerous vital gaps in the literature as it implements new measurement strategies for conflict resolution in the adolescent population.

Icludes numerous measures within each component.

Examines conflict resolution.".. across 3 separate contexts: peer conflict, parent conflict and teacher conflict.

Tests for factors possibly driving variations in conflict resolution. (Borbely, Graber, Nichols, Brooks-Gunn, & Botvin (2005), ¶ 15)

This study's results suggest the effective conflict resolution process is affected by the context in which it is measured. Different skills drive socially competent adolescent behavior in conflict situations depending on the nature...

(Borbely, Graber, Nichols, Brooks-Gunn, & Botvin (2005, ¶ 58)
Wendy Mager, Richard Milich, Monica J. Harris and Anne Howard posit in their study, "Intervention Groups for Adolescents with Conduct Problems: Is Aggregation Harmful or Helpful," that a general consensus exists regarding small-group format for skills-training interventions proving more efficacious than individual training sessions. Social and emotional skills mastery through additional role-playing activities, modeling, and peer reinforcement of adaptive behavior opportunities are provided in these setting. Adding high-risk youth, nevertheless, may prove counterproductive due to their externalizing problems into pure treatment groups, a concern founded on the "acting out" nature of externalizing problems, along with the contributed value adolescents place on peers at this stage in their lives. (Mager, Milich, Harris & Howard, 2005, ¶ 1) Hypotheses for this study included:

1. The mixed-group condition will be more effective for high-risk youth than the pure-group condition;

2. intervention processes of peer modeling and reinforcement will be more adaptive in the mixed-group condition than in the pure-group condition; and 3. group processes will mediate the effects of group composition on outcomes. (Mager, Milich, Harris & Howard, 2005, ¶ 6)

Mager, Milich, Harris & Howard (2005, ¶ 6) stress that their study challenges a 1999 study noted in an American Psychologist article. This article reported supported a generally accepted notion, also popular among researchers and clinicians: "that group treatment for acting-out adolescents may be more harmful than helpful because it provides a forum for the youth to encourage and strengthen each other's anti-social tendencies." The authors for this study insist there is a dearth of strong empirical support regarding this hypothesis. (Mager, Milich, Harris & Howard (2005, ¶18) Numerous concerns regarding effective intervention with at-risk youth continue to challenge researchers. The surprising, significant results of this study, albeit, provide evidence.".. For the provocative suggestion that aggregating deviant adolescents in treatment groups may actually be more effective than conducting treatment groups consisting mostly of pro-social models. " Even though some risk exist, combining at-risk adolescents in group treatments does not constitute a scenario that is doomed to fail and/or spawn negative outcomes. (Mager, Milich, Harris & Howard (2005, ¶22)

Inconclusive Answers

Karl Kessler relates work titled, "Anger Management for Adolescents: Efficacy of Brief Group Therapy," that he and two other researchers completed. Dr. Karen V. Snyder, a Clinical Instructor of Psychiatry at New York Medical College, is also a psychologist for the Crisis Intervention Services, Westchester Medical Center, Valhalla, NY.

Dr. Paul Kymissis is Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Pediatrics; while Dr. Karl Kessler is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at New York Medical College. Kessler, Snyder, & Kymissis (1999, ¶ 1).".. investigate the efficacy of a brief, manual-based group therapy for adolescents with poor anger control" These researchers condensed an anger management treatment package, previously meeting for10 to 12 sessions, to a 2-week, 4-session package.

Fifty adolescent psychiatric inpatients, with high levels of anger, were selected and "randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions."

Questions addressed included:

Can adolescents acquire the skills for anger management when the intervention is condensed into a 4-session series?

Do these skills generalize to social situations in a meaningful way, and are they maintained?(Kessler, Snyder, & Kymissis (1999, ¶ 22)

The authors found the need exists for the generalization of skills to natural social settings and that ways to extract more generalization and maintenance information related to skills in the ensuring days; weeks; months following the treatment program. Support for the transfer of anger management skills into daily social interactions would prove helpful, the authors attest. Kessler, Snyder, & Kymissis (1999, ¶ 28)

Helping Youth Teach Themselves

The study, "Adolescents' accounts of growth experiences in youth activities," by Jodi B. Dworkin, Reed Larson, and David Hansen (2003, ¶ 28) reports their conclusions confirmed most of their expectations. Adolescents, these authors note: "portrayed themselves as the agents of their own development. Whether they were recounting processes of identity work, emotional growth, learning teamwork skills, or making connections with adults in the community, they described processes in which growth emanated from their own thoughts and actions, and from picking and choosing from what adults try to teach them." The fact that adolescents perceive themselves to be agents of their personal development, the primary proves critical as one for activity leaders. This study, suggests that particularly in high school age, leaders' focus might best be implemented by helping youth…