The Effect of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy on Aggression in Children and Adolescents

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of solution-focused brief therapy on aggression in children and adolescents. The participants of the study consisted of all the female elementary and high school students of the city of Sari, who enrolled in the academic year 2010-2011. Two schools were randomly chosen from the above-mentioned schools using multistage cluster random sampling method. Achenbach experienced-based measurement system was administered among them. 32 children and adolescents who had the behavioral problems in the clinical boundaries (aggression), namely that their test scores were higher than 60, were selected and randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. The research method was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest control group design. Buss-Perry aggression questionnaire was used to collect data, which was administered as both the pretest and posttest. The content of solution-focused therapy sessions was provided according to the solution-focused therapy thesis by De Shazer. Data analyses were achieved through the one way ANOVA. The results of the ANOVA indicated that the mean scores on aggression in the experimental groups had significantly decreased in comparison with the mean scores on aggression in the control groups. Thus, it can be concluded that solution-focused brief therapy was effective in reducing aggression in children and adolescents.