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About

• What is Making Choices?
• Problem-Solving Steps
• The Staircase Model
• Old Turtle's Secret

Publications

• The Making Choices Book
• Aggressive Behavior
• The MC Program
• The MC Evaluation
• Selected Bibliography

Presentations

Sample Lessons

• Kindergarten
• Grade 1
• Grade 2
• Grade 3
• Grade 4
• Grade 5

Staff

The MC Evaluation

Social Information-Processing Skills Training to Promote Social Competence and Prevent Aggressive Behavior in the Third Grade
Mark W. Fraser
Maeda J. Galinsky
Paul R. Smokowski
Steven H. Day
Mary A. Terzian
Roderick A. Rose
Shenyang Guo
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 2005, Vol. 73, No. 6, 1045-1055
      This article describes a school-based study designed to promote social competence and reduce aggressive behavior by strengthening children's skills in processing social information and regulating emotions. Three successive cohorts of 3rd graders (N=548) from 2 schools participated. In 2000-2001, children received a routine health curriculum; in 2001-2002, students received the Making Choices: Social Problem Solving Skills for Children (MC) program; and in 2002-2003, children received MC supplemented with teacher and parent activities. Compared with children in the routine condition, children in both MC conditions were rated lower on posttest social and overt aggression and higher on social competence. Moreover, they scored significantly higher on an information-processing skills posttest. The findings suggest that prevention programs can strengthen social-emotional skills and produce changes in aggressive behavior.
Keywords: aggression, prevention, social aggression social competence, social information processing


School-Based Skills Training to Prevent Aggressive Behavior and Peer Rejection in Childhood: Evaluating the Making Choices Program
Paul R. Smokowski
Mark W. Fraser
Steven H. Day
Maeda J. Gallinsky
Martica L. Bacallao
The Journal of Primary Prevention October 2004, Vol. 25, No. 2, p.233
      This paper reports findings from an evaluation of a school-based prevention program, called Making Choices, which was designed to decrease childhood aggression and peer rejection by teaching children social problem solving and relationship enhancement skills. Using a pre- to post-test control group design, 51 third graders received the intervention program and 50 received the no-intervention control condition. Controlling for pretest scores, children who received the Making Choices intervention had significantly higher scores on social contact, cognitive concentration, and displayed significantly lower overt aggression. Important moderation effects surfaced, indicating that the intervention differentially benefitted high-risk children.
Keywords: aggressive behavior; universal prevention; skills-training; peer rejection


Conduct Problems and Peer Rejection in Childhood: A Randomized Trial of the Making Choices and Strong Families Programs
Mark W. Frazer
Steven H. Day
Maeda J. Galinsky
Vanessa G. Hodges
Paul R. Smokowski
Research on Social Work Practice, Vol. 14 No. 5, September 2004 313-324
     This article discusses the effectiveness of a multicomponent intervention designed to disrupt developmental processes associated with conduct problems and peer rejection in childhood. Compared with 41 children randomized to a wait list control condition, 45 children in an intervention condition received a social skills training program. At the same time, their parents participated in an in-home family intervention. Compared with control group children, intervention children demonstrated significant improvements on five of six outcome measures. Differences between the experimental and control groups suggest the programs strengthen children’s prosocial behavior, prom9ote their ability to regulate emotions, and increase social contact with peers. Intervention also was assocated with significant improvements in classroom comportment and decreases in relational aggression, a measure of coercion in peer relationships. The findings are consistent with those of other programs effective in interrupting risk processes associated with conduct problems in childhood and early adolescence.
Keywords: conduct problems; peer rejection; intervention; experiment; children