A computer based selfhelp programme facilitating anger management using positive activity interventions

Abstract

Adolescence is a period marked by multiple developmental transitions, both at a biological and interpersonal level, which may contribute to difficulties with regulating emotions such as anger, also in South Africa. Cognitively, aggressive youths tend to perceive interpersonal cues unrealistically. This fact highlighted the necessity to explore the different perceptions that adolescents, psychologists and teachers hold with regard to anger triggers, management styles and the needs with regard to anger management within a group of South African adolescents. Focus groups were held involving 21 learners and five teachers from a school in Klerksdorp in the North West province, as well as with five psychologists working with adolescents in the same area. Anger triggers identified in this study were related to the appraisal of frustration and goal obstacles, unfairness, control or a threat to self-esteem. Participants in this study identified a need for communication skills, assertiveness training and more knowledge about anger and the different anger management techniques available. A self-help online anger management programme was developed, aimed at facilitating anger management using positive activity interventions. Positive activity interventions are defined as “relatively brief, self-administered, and nonstigmatizing exercises that promote positive feelings, thoughts, and/or behaviours, rather than directly aiming to fix negative feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. The Guided Self Help framework was chosen, since adolescents are prolific users of the internet and it is their preferred medium of communication. The programme is divided into six sessions of one hour each, addressing what anger is, understanding the roots of anger, how to relax, learning to let go and how to be assertive. A two-group (experimental and control) pre-test and post-test design was used and the sample group consisted of 40 adolescents from two schools in the North West province of South Africa. Both the experimental group (n=20) and control group (n=20) underwent pre-testing and post-testing immediately after the intervention and one month after on three different questionnaires, namely The Affectometer 2 (Kammann & Flett, 1983), The Coping Self-Efficacy Scale (CSE) (Chesney, Folkman & Chambers, 1996) and the State Trait Anger Expression Inventory – 2nd Edition (STAXI-2) (Spielberger, 1999). The self-help online anger management programme using positive activity interventions was presented to the experimental group (six one-hour sessions over a twoweek period) only. The experimental group showed significant improvements on the presence of positive emotions and feelings of well-being one month after the intervention and significant increases in their ability to seek support from family and friends, as well as in their overall sense of coping immediately after the intervention and even more so one month after the intervention. The experimental group initially scored lower results in the intensity of their angry immediately after the intervention, but also reported more individual differences in their disposition to express anger and was more likely to hold their anger in. However, one month after the intervention, there was no practical or statistical differences in the experimental group’s experience or management of their anger. It can therefore be concluded that, although the self-help online management programme using positive activity interventions had no significant impact on anger management, it is effective in facilitating positive feelings and well-being, enhancing the ability to seek social support from family and friends and facilitating an overall sense of coping on a group of South African adolescents. A limitation of this study is that the results obtained from the sample population cannot be generalized beyond the sample population and that self-report measures left open the possibility of biased responses. Since this study is limited by its small sample size and the short-term nature of the intervention, further study is recommended to examine the effect over a longer intervention period in a larger sample, focusing specifically on the enhancement of self-esteem with more intense homework assignments. The self-help online anger management programme can be recommended by teachers, parents and therapists as a source of information or as an alternative to faceto- face counselling, or maybe as an add-on to existing anger management programmes or therapy. Since computer use in South Africa has several challenges, including availability, affordability and difficulty of use, it is recommended that the programme should be adapted for mobile applications in order to reach rural and remote areas.