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The SCARE (for Student-Created Aggression Replacement Education) Program is a school-based anger and aggression management program for children and adolescents, especially those at risk for academic and behavioral problems. The primary goals of the program are to teach at-risk youth about emotions, including anger and aggression, and to help them recognize alternatives to violent behavior and aggressive responses. It also aims to help young people make good decisions in response to perceived offenses and otherwise cope in risky situations. This program was developed to exclusively emphasize violence and aggression beginning in early adolescence, because of evidence that this is a critical period in social development. SCARE is unique in that it was developed with student input.
The program involves 15 different sessions clustered into three distinct yet related sections: 1) recognizing anger and violence in the community, 2) managing and reducing self-expressions of anger, and 3) defusing anger and violence in others. The program is delivered daily or twice weekly, in 45- to 50-minute sessions. Its curriculum was designed for broad-scale implementation by teachers, counselors, law enforcement officers, graduate or undergraduate students, or adult volunteers.
The evaluation study of SCARE involved 207 students in seventh through ninth grades from two “alternative” middle schools serving at-risk youth. Participating students were randomly selected from these two schools. The sample was composed of 149 males and 58 females, and the ethnic distribution was roughly 50 percent Hispanic, 40 percent white, 5 percent African-American, and 5 percent “other.” Pretests were administered to all selected students. Following pretesting, students were randomly divided into an intervention or a control group. For the next 8 weeks, the intervention group received the SCARE curriculum, and the control group received an alternate curriculum, the Enter Here Curriculum. Participants were tested again at the end of the 8 weeks. Another assessment was conducted 1 year following the posttest.
Pretest and posttest measures included measures of anger and aggression. Anger was measured using the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory, a self-report measure of the experience and expression of subjective feelings of anger and dispositional anger. Aggression was measured with three sources: the aggression portion of the Missouri Peer Relations Inventory, which assesses perceptions of aggression among adolescents; the Attitudes Toward Guns and Violence Questionnaire, a measure of attitudes toward aggression and violence, especially guns and violence; and students’ detention and disciplinary records.
The study found that the SCARE intervention group showed statistically significant decreases in anger and increases in anger control when compared with the control group, suggesting that the SCARE students were able to alter the way they typically handled situations and their own anger responses. Intervention students, however, did not maintain their gains 1 year after treatment. The authors suggest that this is due in part to the fact that follow-up treatments—standard practice in prevention and intervention efforts—were not given to the population. In terms of aggression, intervention students showed significant reductions in aggressive attitudes at posttest and delayed follow-up.
Herrmann, D. Scott. 1999. "The Student Aggression Replacement Education (SCARE) Program: An Experimental Validation Study." Doctoral dissertation. Tempe, Ariz.: Arizona State University.
Herrman, D. Scott, and J. Jefferies McWhitter. 2001. The SCARE Program: Student Created Aggression Replacement Education. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.
D. Scott Herrmann, Ph.D.
SCARE Program
3125 West Durango Street
Juvenile Probation/Superior Court of Arizona
Phoenix, AZ 85009–6217
Phone: (602) 506-7143
Fax: (602) 506-4159
E-mail: donher@juvenile.maricopa.gov
Web site: http://www.kendallhunt.com/index.cfm?PID=219&CID=219&CEL=992&PRD=44
D. Scott Herrmann, Ph.D.
SCARE Program
Juvenile Probation/Superior Court of Arizona
3125 West Durango Street
Phoenix, AZ 85009–6217
Phone: (602) 506-7143
Fax: (602) 506-4159
E-mail: donher@juvenile.maricopa.gov
Web site: http://www.kendallhunt.com
