Preventive intervention helps children who show aggression at an early age

Fast Track is a preventive intervention designed to help children who show aggression at an early age. The intervention addresses kids’ social-cognitive processes in several ways, including social-skill training groups, parent groups, and classroom curricula.

In this study, the researchers investigated the processes underlying this intervention’s success. A total of 891 kindergarteners who were at high risk for adolescent antisocial behavior were randomly assigned to receive either the Fast Track intervention or a control program. The data revealed that children in the intervention showed decreased levels of antisocial behavior at the end of 9th grade, which was driven, in part, by improvement on three specific social-cognitive processes. These results suggest that social-cognitive processes may play an important role in the development of antisocial behavior in youth.

Published online February 13, 2013 in Psychological Science