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    An age and gender comparison of adolescent hostility and its relationship to depression and bullying : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology, at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2006) Wilson, Brian David
    This study set out to establish the relationship of adolescent hostility to depression and bullying in respect to age and gender. The two groups measured comprised 355 children aged 13 and 14, and 17 and 18 from both urban and rural co-educational high schools. Students were required in class to complete a questionnaire comprising three clinical assessment tools - the Beck Depression Inventory-II, Cynical Distrust Scale (revised) and Peer Relations Questionnaire, measuring depression, hostility and bullying respectively. Results using Pearson's r, confirmed correlations of 0.01 significance between hostility and depression for both genders and age groups. The hostility-bullying relationship was found to be only significant for males. Boys-especially the younger group, reported more frequent and physical bullying, whereas girls experienced greater verbal and psychological bullying. Age was found to be a moderating factor, suggesting that boys as they get older use more covert ways of dealing with hostility. These findings contribute to current knowledge on adolescent hostility, and provide valuable information useful to schools and those developing strategies for the prevention and treatment of hostility, depression and bullying.
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    Internal and external predictors of adolescent antisocial behavior : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masterate of Arts in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2000) Miller, Tanya Nicole
    The internal and external predictors of adolescent antisocial behaviour were investigated with 132 participants from youth homes and university psychology classes. Personality was the chosen internal predictor, and family environment and peer influence were the selected external predictors. The purpose of the current study was to examine these predictors, and their relative effects. Participants were given a five- part questionnaire to complete. The questionnaire included sections from the Young Adult Self- Report, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and the Family Environment Scale. Total antisocial behaviour was significantly predicted by age, psychoticism, neuroticism, social conformity, peer influence and achievement orientation in the participant's family. There were limited differences regarding sex, education level and ethnicity. It is concluded that personality contributes the most to adolescent antisocial behaviour. Implications for future research and treatment strategies are discussed.
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    The impact of school-based Aggression Replacement Training on emotion regulation and aggressive behaviour : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2014) Smith, Freya
    This research evaluates the effectiveness and implementation of Aggression Replacement Training (ART) with a group of New Zealand (NZ) students aged 13-15 years (n=18). Aggression is a significant problem in NZ schools and despite recent progress with school-wide and individually targeted interventions, there are few evaluations of interventions with these adolescents. Deficient emotion regulation is a major risk factor in youth aggression. Although emotion regulation skills are targeted by many aggression interventions, outcome measures less frequently assess these skills than other social information processing abilities. This thesis links research evidence of the role of emotion in aggression, to the techniques taught in ART, to support the hypothesis that ART improves emotion regulation and reduces aggression. Analyses of the change in mean group scores and individual-level analyses indicate improvements in ART participants’ emotion regulation, anger control and social skills over the course of intervention and follow-up. These analyses also indicate reductions in ART participants’ externalising, problem behaviours and cognitive distortions. These findings support the use of ART as effective in reducing the risk of aggressive behaviour, and as an alternative to exclusionary discipline, in NZ schools. ART appears to be culturally acceptable and may offer a less resource intensive intervention than individual intervention plans. Keywords: aggression, emotion regulation, adolescence, social information processing, aggression replacement training.
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    The efficacy of Aggression Replacement Training on interpersonal deficits and aggressive subtypes in New Zealand high school students : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2014) Mills, Jessica
    Aggression Replacement Training (ART) is a three component intervention that targets the emotional, cognitive, and behavioural deficits associated with antisocial behaviour. Despite the growing number of outcome studies demonstrating the efficacy of ART in reducing antisocial behaviours, gaps in our understanding of how ART operates to create positive change remain. The current research aimed to reduce some of these gaps by trialling ART with three groups of high school students in New Zealand schools. Improvements in interpersonal competence that the intervention is claimed to target, empathy, and the proactive and reactive tendencies of aggression were investigated. This research also aimed to show the added value of the Moral Reasoning Training (MRT) component, over and above that of the Anger Control Training (ACT) and Social Skills Training (SST) components, by delivering the MRT component last and assessing change in variables over the course of the intervention. Overall the current research found multiple improvements from pre-test to follow-up, across a range of measures, consistent with theoretical expectations. Findings particularly suggest that ART may be a useful intervention for reducing reactive aggressive tendencies. However, little evidence was seen to suggest the ART is effective for reducing proactive aggression. This research also found changes across the course of the intervention that suggest the MRT component is a valuable addition to the overall intervention: particularly in reducing the cognitive distortions associated with overt antisocial behaviour, as well as increasing global stage moral reasoning. ART seems to be an acceptable intervention for students that warrants further investigation for use with students in New Zealand.