The Impact of Anger Management Treatment and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy in a Public School Setting on Social Skills,Anger Management,and Depression

Public school students participated in a group to enhance and improve anger management. The study used a pre-post design with a comparison group. Students were assigned to either Anger Management Treatment or Anger Management plus Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). Each child served as his or her own control and received an empirically validated intervention. Pretest–posttest data were evaluated using the Social Skills Rating System, the Children’s Depression Inventory and the Children’s Inventory of Anger. Results indicate that the addition of the REBT component to Anger Management reduced anger as well as depression, while improving social skills, suggesting the addition of a specialized cognitive behavioral component increased the effectiveness of the intervention.