NIH R01 Friend to Friend With Coaching

NCT04164472 | Completed DMC

• 2 other identifiers: 18-0155821R01HD094833-01A1
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 5,250
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

This study examines the effectiveness of the Friend to Friend (F2F) program when conducted by teachers and counselors with active coaching from the research team. The project involves 14 small group sessions for relationally aggressive girls and 8 classroom sessions. Students, teachers, counselors and parents at intervention and control schools fill out pre- and post- program questionnaires.

Conditions

Aggression

Keywords

Relational Aggression; Aggression; Indicated intervention; Universal prevention; School-based; Urban

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (6)

• Change in hostile attribution biases

  The self-report Cartoon-Based Hostile Attributional Bias measure will be used to assess hostile attributions with 2 relational vignettes and 2 physical vignettes, with one question asking whether a behavior was intentional or unintentional and a second questions asking whether the behavior was harmful or not harmful. Scores on the 2 items per vignette type (relational, physical) are summed, each vignette has a range of 0 (no bias) to 4 (strong bias) where higher scores reflect a worse outcome (i.e. more relational hostile attributional biases and/or more physical hostile attributional biases).

  Given two times throughout the study, first at baseline (early in the school year, October/November) and up to 8 months later

• Change in Knowledge of Anger Problem-Solving Steps

  Knowledge of Anger Problem Solving (KAPS) is a 9 item abbreviated multiple choice measure (original measure was 15 items) designed to assess students' general knowledge of the steps underlying the social information processing model of aggression and of anger management techniques. Scores are calculated through summing across all 9 items, where a score is given a 1 if a correct answer is selected or 0 if an incorrect answer is selected; with a range of 0 (no correct) to 9 (all correct), higher scores reflect a better outcome.

  Given two times throughout the study, first at baseline (early in the school year, October/November) and up to 8 months later

• Change in Relational Aggression

  Teacher report of relational aggression will be assessed using the Children's Social Behavior Questionnaire with 5 items. Scores are calculated by averaging across all items, with a range of 1 to 5, higher scores reflect a worse outcome (more relational aggression). Peer reports of relational aggression will be measured using two items. These items are based on Crick and Grotpeter and have strong psychometric properties. Students rate the frequency that each classmate engages in relational aggression on 2 items (leaving out, rumor spreading) on a scale from 1- Not at All to 5- A Whole Lot. Each individual child has a mean score ranging from 1 to 5 (drawn from an average rating across all students/peers in a class). Higher scores reflect a worse outcome (more relational aggression).

  Given two times throughout the study, first at baseline (early in the school year, October/November) and up to 8 months later

• Change in Prosocial Leadership

  This 7-item measure combines items from the leadership and prosocial competence scales from the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) to create a combined scale called Prosocial Leadership that has been found to be reliable and valid in prior studies. Items are rated on a 4-point scale (1-hardly ever to 4-almost always).

  Given two times throughout the study, first at baseline (early in the school year, October/November) and up to 8 months later

• Change in Teacher-Student Relationships

  The STRS has demonstrated strong psychometric properties, and a strong student-teacher relationship has been shown to be predictive of adaptive adjustment in school. Ten items drawn from the Closeness subscale (e.g., "shares information about self") (α = .89) and the Conflict subscale (e.g., "easily becomes angry at me") (α = .93) will be completed by teachers for all assented students (boys and girls) in their class. Teachers respond to each item on a five-point scale (1 = definitely does not apply to 5 = definitely applies), with higher scores indicating higher closeness or higher conflict.

  Given two times throughout the study, first at baseline (early in the school year, October/November) and up to 8 months later

• Change in Staff Self-Efficacy for Handling Aggression

  This 12-item measure called "Staff Self-Efficacy for Handling Aggression" has been designed for this study for school counselors and teachers to rate their own strategies for intervening, comfort in intervening, and perceived effectiveness for intervening with girls who are relationally aggressive on a five point scale from (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Scores are averaged across items with higher scores indicating a better outcome.

  Given two times throughout the study, first at baseline (early in the school year, October/November) and on up to 8 months later

Secondary Outcomes (4)

• Explore peer rejection as mediator/moderator

  Given two times throughout the study, first at baseline (early in the school year, October/November) and up to 8 months later.

• Explore perception of intervention attributes as mediator/moderator

  Up to 8 months after the study began.

• Explore student self-efficacy for non-violence

  Given two times throughout the study, first at baseline (early in the school year, October/November) and up to 8 months later.

• Explore implementation factors

  This will be first administered during the first session/lesson in the school year (approximately October/November) and to be filled out weekly by facilitators for up to 8 months.

Study Arms (2)

Friend to Friend with Coaching

EXPERIMENTAL

Program for relationally aggressive girls and their classmates delivered by school personnel who have been coached by study team.

Behavioral: Friend to Friend (F2F) with Coaching

Control

NO INTERVENTION

Referral to school counselor as needed as per standard practice.

Interventions

Friend to Friend (F2F) with Coaching BEHAVIORAL

Friend to Friend (F2F) with Coaching has 14 small group sessions and 8 classroom sessions as led by school staff with coaching from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) research team. The program aims to improve problem solving and prosocial behaviors, and decrease aggressive behaviors.

Friend to Friend with Coaching

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 7 Years+
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may not qualify if:

• Urban school from the School District of Philadelphia
• Predominately minority student body (\> 80%)
• Relatively large school with at least 2 classrooms per grade
• School is not currently involved in a systematic anti-aggression or bullying prevention program
• School must have at least 1 school counselor who is interested in participating
• All boys and girls in regular education 4th-5th grade classrooms will be eligible to participate in screening and outcome assessment activities.
• Screening will include a peer-rating procedure that will be utilized to identify girls with relational aggression (GRAs).
• GRAs will be based on if they score \> .50 of a Standard Deviation above mean on relational aggression on the peer-rating measure. These identified girls will be recruited (with written parent consent and student assent) to participate in the F2F with Coaching or control condition.
• \) All parents of students in regular education 4th-5th grade classrooms will be eligible to participate in outcome assessment activities. Starting in year 4, parent recruitment will focus on parents of indicated girls.
• Teachers/counselors employed by the participating school sites who provide their verbal consent for participation.
• Teachers/counselors who currently teach and/or provide services to students in 4th-5th grade.
• \) Students who do not speak English. 2) Students whose parents do not speak English or one of the foreign languages into which the Parent Information Sheet for Child Participation has been translated (who therefore cannot opt their child in or out of the study in an informed manner).
• \) Special education students who are not integrated within the regular education classroom.
• \) In intervention schools, boys are excluded from the F2F small group intervention, however, as noted above, all boys will participate in the class portion of the program. Boys in both conditions will complete screening and outcome assessment activities.
• \) Parents who do not speak English or one of the foreign languages into which the Parent Information Sheet for Parent Participation and parent questionnaires have been translated.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: lead
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19146, United States

Location

Related Publications (15)

• Leff SS, Paskewich BS, Waasdorp TE, Waanders C, Bevans KB, Jawad AF. Friend to Friend: A Randomized Trial for Urban African American Relationally Aggressive Girls. Psychol Violence. 2015 Oct;5(4):433-443. doi: 10.1037/a0039724.

  PMID: 30079272 BACKGROUND

• Leff SS, Waasdorp TE, Paskewich BS. The Broader Impact of Friend to Friend (F2F): Effects on Teacher-Student Relationships, Prosocial Behaviors, and Relationally and Physically Aggressive Behaviors. Behav Modif. 2016 Jul;40(4):589-610. doi: 10.1177/0145445516650879. Epub 2016 May 23.

  PMID: 27222262 BACKGROUND

• Leff SS, Gullan RL, Paskewich BS, Abdul-Kabir S, Jawad AF, Grossman M, Munro MA, Power TJ. An initial evaluation of a culturally adapted social problem-solving and relational aggression prevention program for urban African-American relationally aggressive girls. J Prev Interv Community. 2009;37(4):260-74. doi: 10.1080/10852350903196274.

  PMID: 19830622 BACKGROUND

• Crick NR, Dodge KA. Social information-processing mechanisms in reactive and proactive aggression. Child Dev. 1996 Jun;67(3):993-1002.

  PMID: 8706540 BACKGROUND

• Crick NR, Grotpeter JK. Relational aggression, gender, and social-psychological adjustment. Child Dev. 1995 Jun;66(3):710-22. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1995.tb00900.x.

  PMID: 7789197 BACKGROUND

• Mehari KR, Waasdorp TE, Leff SS. Measuring Relational and Overt Aggression by Peer Report: A Comparison of Peer Nominations and Peer Ratings. J Sch Violence. 2019;18(3):362-374. doi: 10.1080/15388220.2018.1504684. Epub 2018 Aug 23.

  PMID: 31462897 BACKGROUND

• Reynolds, C. R., & Kamphaus, R. W. (2004). BASC-2: Behavior assessment system for children. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.

  BACKGROUND

• Pianta, R. C., & Stuhlman, M. W. (2004). Teacher-child relationships and children's success in the first years of school. School Psychology Review, 33, 444-458.

  BACKGROUND

• Leadbeater BJ, Thompson K, Sukhawathanakul P. Enhancing Social Responsibility and Prosocial Leadership to Prevent Aggression, Peer Victimization, and Emotional Problems in Elementary School Children. Am J Community Psychol. 2016 Dec;58(3-4):365-376. doi: 10.1002/ajcp.12092. Epub 2016 Sep 30.

  PMID: 27686887 BACKGROUND

• Crick NR. The role of overt aggression, relational aggression, and prosocial behavior in the prediction of children's future social adjustment. Child Dev. 1996 Oct;67(5):2317-27.

  PMID: 9022243 BACKGROUND

• Domitrovich CE, Bradshaw CP, Poduska JM, Hoagwood K, Buckley JA, Olin S, Romanelli LH, Leaf PJ, Greenberg MT, Ialongo NS. Maximizing the Implementation Quality of Evidence-Based Preventive Interventions in Schools: A Conceptual Framework. Adv Sch Ment Health Promot. 2008 Jul;1(3):6-28. doi: 10.1080/1754730x.2008.9715730.

  PMID: 27182282 BACKGROUND

• Bosworth, K., & Espelage, D. (1995). Teen conflict survey. Bloomington, IN: Center for Adolescent Studies, Indiana University.

  BACKGROUND

• Multisite Violence Prevention Project. (2004). Description of measures: Cohort-wide student survey. Available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Atlanta, GA. (Unpublished).

  BACKGROUND

• Leff SS, Crick NR, Angelucci J, Haye K, Jawad AF, Grossman M, Power TJ. Social cognition in context: validating a cartoon-based attributional measure for urban girls. Child Dev. 2006 Sep-Oct;77(5):1351-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00939.x.

  PMID: 16999803 BACKGROUND

• Leff SS, Cassano M, MacEvoy JP, Costigan T. Initial validation of a knowledge-based measure of social information processing and anger management. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2010 Oct;38(7):1007-20. doi: 10.1007/s10802-010-9419-9.

  PMID: 20449645 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Aggression

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Aberrant Motor Behavior in Dementia; Behavioral Symptoms; Behavior; Social Behavior

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: Randomized clinical trial

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 23, 2019
• First Posted: November 15, 2019
• Study Start: November 12, 2019
• Primary Completion: June 30, 2025
• Study Completion: June 30, 2025
• Last Updated: November 10, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-11

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)