ABSTRACT
Acts of violence, vandalism, assault, bullying, and hostile communication occur in a social context and affect all participants of the interaction including the aggressor, the victim, and the bystander (Pepler & Slaby, 1994); both bullies and victims are at risk for subsequent maladjustment. Manifestations of aggressive or destructive behaviors in early childhood are relatively stable (Shaw, Owens, Vondra, Keenan, & Winslow, 1996) and predict subsequent antisocial behaviors during school age and into adulthood (Farrington, 2000; Tremblay, Pihl, Viataro, & Dobkin, 1994). Likewise, victim status is stable among frequently harassed children (Boulton & Smith, 1994) and is associated with adjustment problems (for reviews, see Egan & Perry, 1998; Hodges & Perry, 1996), that include peer rejection (Graham & Juvonen, 1998) and academic failure (Austin & Joseph, 1996). Early onset and stability of problems with aggression and victimization underscore the need for prevention or early intervention programs to address the associated risk and protective factors. The STORIES program (Rahill & Teglasi, 2003; Teglasi & Rothman, 2001) uses the peer group process and the story form to enhance the complexity and organization of social problem-solving for aggressors, victims, and bystanders to reduce disruptive and hos tile peer interactions in schools through two mechanisms: (1) experiential learning as the process by which temperamental risk or protective variables characterizing bullies and victims become translated into social cognitions that also function as risk/protective variables; and (2) the synergy between the “story” form and the peer group influence as tools for harnessing the ex periential process of learning to improve social information processing.
