Effects of Delivering Coping Power in Individual Versus Group Formats.

Abstract

There are certain advantages for using group-based intervention, including for children with disruptive behavior problems (Lochman et al., 2019). First, working with children in groups is more cost-effective than individually delivered intervention (Mager et al., 2005). This is an important consideration at all levels of mental health service delivery, and could certainly be a factor, from a public health perspective, in making preventive interventions readily available to a broad spectrum of the population. Second, group reward systems and peer reinforcement can play an important role in assisting children to attain intervention related goals, and thus to generalize behavioral improvements resulting from intervention to children's real-world school and home settings (Poulin et al., 2001). As children practice self-regulation and social problem-solving skills in groups, these skills can affect how children perceive stressful and frustrating situations in their home and community, as well as at school, leading to potentially similar rates of behavioral improvement in both home and school settings (eg, as in Mushtaq et al., 2017). Third, groups can permit children to develop prosocial leadership skills (Flannery-Schroeder & Kendall, 2000). Fourth, the group format permits children to practice learned social and behavioral skills (Poulin et al., 2001). Inclusion of peers in small group interventions facilitates opportunities for practice of social and emotional skills, feedback about social and emotional skill performance, and fosters children's abilities to generalize use of skills with peers (Lavallee et al., 2005).