Effectiveness of Teaching Self-Control Abilities on Reducing Aggression in Students with Aggressive Behaviors

One common cause of aggression is failure in self-control. However, research shows that exercise self-control can improve self-control in next years. The purpose of the present research was to examine the effectiveness of teaching self-control abilities on reducing aggression in students with aggressive behaviors. The method was an experimental study with a pre-test/post-test design and control group. The statistical population consisted of all boy high school students in Asanteh Ashrafieh, wich among them after performing aggression questionnaire a sample of 20 students with significant aggression were selected by random cluster sampling method and assigned in two groups control and experimental randomly. Self-control instruction was conducted for the experimental group in 12 sessions in a period of one month, while the control group received no training at all. To collect data, Buss and Perry’s aggression questionnaire (1992) was used. Finally data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance. The results indicated that self-control training were significantly effective in aggression reduction. Also, experimental group in all four subscales (physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility) achieved lower scores on the pretests than the posttest. That is, their aggression scores reduced significantly. Thus it can be concluded that the self-control training programs can be used as a method of treatment of aggression in children.