UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff LLoouuiissvviillllee TThhiinnkkIIRR:: TThhee UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff LLoouuiissvviillllee''ss IInnssttiittuuttiioonnaall RReeppoossiittoorryy Electronic Theses and Dissertations 5-2015 RReellaattiioonnaall aaggggrreessssiioonn iinn sscchhooooll sseettttiinnggss :: tthhee eeffifficcaaccyy ooff tthhee FFiirrsstt SStteepp ttoo SSuucccceessss iinntteerrvveennttiioonn.. Alicia Latrelle Dailey University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Part of the Social Work Commons RReeccoommmmeennddeedd CCiittaattiioonn Dailey, Alicia Latrelle, "Relational aggression in school settings : the efficacy of the First Step to Success intervention." (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2022. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2022 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. RELATIONAL AGGRESSION IN SCHOOL SETTINGS: THE EFFICACY OF THE FIRST STEP TO SUCCESS INTERVENTION By Alicia Latrelle Dailey B.A., DePauw University, 1979 M.A., International School of Theology, 1985 M. Div., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1995 MSSW, University of Louisville, 2008 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Raymond A. Kent School of Social Work of the University of Louisville in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the D egree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work Kent School of Social Work University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky May, 2015 Copyright 2015 by Alicia L. Dailey All rights reserved RELATIONAL AGGRESSION IN SCHOOL SETTINGS: THE EFFICACY OF THE FIRST STEP TO SUCCESS INTERVENTION By Alicia Latrelle Dailey B.A., DePauw University, 1979 M.A., International School of Theology, 1985 M. Div., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1995 MSSW, University of Louisville, 2008 A Dissertation Approved on April 9, 2015 by the following Dissertation Committee: _________________________________________________ Andy J. Frey, Ph.D., Chair _________________________________________________ Sharon E. Moore, Ph.D. _________________________________________________ Gerard M. Barber, Ph.D. _________________________________________________ Armon R. Perry, Ph.D. _________________________________________________ Christina R. Studts, Ph.D. ii DEDICATION To the memory of Mrs. A and Miss V – they don’t make’em like you anymore! iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It would be foolish for me to think that I completed this degree all on my own. First and foremost, I acknowledge my Creator, Sustainer, Provider, Savior and Comforter, the Lord Jesus Christ. Without His calling and blessing, I certainly would not have made it. He provided the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual ability for me to endure four years of labor pains. Now, I have given birth to the Ph.D. degree and I look forward to the blessings that await me! I also want to acknowledge my family. My parents - the late “Professor” Anderson Dailey and Mrs. Anna Dailey - conceived me in love, brought me into this world, taught me the ways of the Lord, and supported whatever endeavors I chose to pursue. I hope that “Daddy” can see my achievement from Heaven. Mother always provided a care package for me before I left her house after a visit. Rev. Andrew Dailey, ABD, provided comic relief and an understanding of what I was going through. Drs. Wilmot and Lucy Valhmu inspired me by achieving their own Ph.D. degrees. Dr. Theressa Wright, M.D., and Al Wright were continual sources of encouragement. These and unnamed relatives and friends prayed for me. Next, I wish to applaud my dissertation committee chair. Dr. Andy Frey recruited me to the University of Louisville and promised to mentor me through the whole program. He kept his word! Andy set a high bar, but he also gave me high support! I’ll never forget how, on two separate occasions, he spent hours with me, helping me with chapters four & five. He gave wise advice, and is one of the most positive people I iv know. He also gave me access to data from his grant, which shortened my time in the program. As a result, I nominated him for “Outstanding Mentor of the Year.” Although he was not selected for the award, he remains outstanding in my book! I also had outstanding dissertation committee members, who each had distinguished careers – too lengthy to mention here. Dr. Rod Barber mentored me when I taught policy and was the “macro voice” on my committee. Dr. Sharon E. Moore recruited me to be a co-author with her for an article, and she modeled never giving up until it got published. I nominated her for unsung “Shero of the Year” for 2014. Dr. Armon Perry was honored as 2014 Minority Access Role Model and has been identified as an “emerging scholar” in the Scholar’s Network on Black Masculinity. Dr. Tina Studts, from the University of Kentucky, was the statistician on my committee. She had a gift for explaining statistical analyses in terms I could understand. Thanks, too, to others who helped me during the doctoral program: Dr. Bibhuti Sar, Ph.D. Program Chair, encouraged me during the first semester when I considered quitting; Norma Kyriss reminded me of deadlines and procedures that needed my attention; Charlos Thompson was two years ahead of me and let me know what was ahead; Lynetta Mathis adjusted my assistantship schedule so that I could fully focus on my dissertation towards the end; and Rev. Dr. Wanda Collins, my teaching professor and a fellow minister, showed me that one can be an excellent academician and an excellent preacher. Special thanks goes to Dr. Beth Boehm, Dean of SIGS, who selected me for the institutionally-funded SREB fellowship. The annual SREB conferences were both inspirational and informative, and just seeing 1,000 minority Ph.D. students was very motivational. The financial package helped me to graduate in four years! v ABSTRACT RELATIONAL AGGRESSION IN SCHOOL SETTINGS: THE EFFICACY OF THE FIRST STEP TO SUCCESS INTERVENTION Alicia L. Dailey April 9, 2015 This dissertation is a study of relational aggression (RA) in school settings. RA is a nonphysical type of aggression where the intent is to harm relationships and the social standing of a targeted peer. Examples include social exclusion, gossip, spreading rumors and the silent treatment. RA has negative consequences for both perpetrators and victims, and is associated with friendship problems, peer rejection, depression, anxiety, poor academic performance and dropout. RA is stable and reaches its peak in middle school, continuing into adulthood. In order to address RA, this dissertation argues that early intervention is necessary with young children as early as preschool. The purpose of this study is to explore the efficacy of a broad-based intervention in reducing RA levels in young children. Chapter One provides an overview of RA, including definitions and significance. The development of RA has been associated with its use by parents and older siblings, social information processing deficits in children entering preschool and socioeconomic status. Methods of measuring RA include teacher report, peer nomination and observation. Chapter Two presents the major tenets of social learning theory, asserting vi that young children learn RA from their home and neighborhood environments, while school settings may enhance or inhibit these behaviors, depending upon various reinforcement strategies. Chapter Three reviews RA interventions that have been developed for early childhood and elementary settings, with less than definitive findings. Chapter Four describes the Preschool First Step (PFS) intervention (Feil et al., 2015), and methods for the current study. In order to explore the potential efficacy of PFS, this study addressed the following research questions: 1) Is the PFS intervention efficacious in reducing RA? 2) Do the effects of the PFS intervention differ for children with elevated levels of RA? Chapter Five presents hypotheses and results. While ANCOVA and ANOVA analyses did not yield significant findings for the intervention group, a responder analysis showed that more children in the intervention group improved, and twice as many children in the control group deteriorated. Chapter Six concludes the study with implications, limitations and suggestions for future research. vii