Social Skills Instruction

Coping Power, based on the earlier program Anger Coping Power, is designed to help
children who have been identified as aggressive and/or disruptive make the transition to middle
school (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). The Coping Power’s program provides structured
cognitive-behavioral group sessions for the selected students as well as behavioral training
groups for their parents (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). There have been three major
studies of Coping Power that meet What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evidence standards.
Based on these three studies, the WWC considers Coping Power on children classified as having
an emotional disturbance (or children at risk for classification) to have a medium to large effect
on their external behavior (U.S. Department of Education, 2011).
Coping Power is designed for children approaching the transition to middle school,
specifically fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. According to the U.S. Department of Education
(2011), the WWC considers Coping Power to have a small effect on social outcomes for those
deemed to have an emotional disturbance. These three studies did not examine, however, the
effectiveness of Coping Power on children classified with an emotional disturbance in the
emotional or internal behavior, reading achievement or literacy, math achievement, school
attendance, or other academic performance domains (U.S. Department of Education, 2011).
These domains would require further investigation to determine effectiveness. The child
component of Coping Power consists of thirty-four 50-minute group sessions and periodic
individual sessions over the course of 15–18 months, although the program can be shortened to
fit into a single school year. Lessons focus on goal setting, problem solving, anger management,
and peer relationships (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). These lessons could be
implemented into a morning meeting before the start of school or in after school groups each
day. The individual lessons could be periodically scheduled during lunch time or other arranged
times since they are so sparse.
According to the University of Alabama (2017), Coping Power program for children
focuses on:
(a) establishing group rules and contingent reinforcement; (b) generating alternative
solutions and considering the consequences of alternative solutions to social problems;
(c) viewing modeling videotapes of children becoming aware of physiological arousal
when angry, using self-statements and using the complete set of problem-solving skills
with social problems; (d) planning and making their own videotape of inhibitory self-
statements and social problem-solving with problems of their own choice; (e) coping with
anxiety and anger arousal (using self-statements and relaxation); (f) addressing accurate
identification of social problems involving provocation and peer pressure to participate in
drug use (focus on attributions, cue recall, and understanding of others' and own goals);
(g) increasing social skills, involving methods of entering new peer groups and using
positive peer networks (focus on negotiation and cooperation on structured and
unstructured interactions with peers); (h) coping with peer pressure to use drugs; and (i)
increasing their study and organizational skills.
The parents’ instructional procedure, on the other hand, focuses on the identification of prosocial
and disruptive behavioral targets in children, rewarding appropriate behaviors in their child,
giving effective instructions, establishing age-appropriate rules and expectations for their
children, applying effective consequences to negative child behavior, and establishing consistent
family communication by conducting weekly family meetings (U.S. Department of Education,
2011). Parents could practice this throughout their everyday lives by emphasizing it in their
interactions with their kids on a consistent basis. They could also practice their overall
communication skills with others they interact with on any given day so that their skills translate
over more smoothly to the weekly family meetings. The areas of influence of Coping Power are
presented below in Table 1.

Table 1
Areas of Influence
Domain Protective Factors Risk Factors
Individual Emotional regulation Aggressive behavior
Social problem solving Unregulated anger
Appropriate attributions
Internal locus of control
Family Parental involvement Harsh punishment
Consistent discipline Lack of parental warmth
School Academic competence Behavioral problems
School bonding
Peers Social acceptance Social rejection
Deviant peers
Note. Reprinted from The University of Alabama (2017).

Training for Coping Power is conducted in an intensive workshop format. The training
can generally be completed over a two- or three-day period and covers hands-on opportunities to
implement intervention techniques as well as presentations, discussions, and more (The
University of Alabama, 2017). There are also follow-up trainings that are also highly
recommended and executed in ongoing consultative supervision and feedback sessions at least
once a month (more commonly, bi-weekly) throughout the first year of applying the program
(U.S. Department of Education, 2011). The training is targeted towards qualified mental health
workers, but interventionists must be, at the very least, professionals with expertise in
implementing groups with children demonstrating disruptive behaviors (The University of
Alabama, 2017). Ideally, school counselors, mental health practitioners, school social workers,
school psychologists, etc., will be the ones looking to administer the Coping Power program in
their school or district (The University of Alabama, 2017). The cost of training can range
anywhere from $250 to over $5,000, depending on the level, size, and location of the workshops
(U.S. Department of Education, 2011).

For more information on Coping Power, please visit the following links:
https://www.copingpower.com/Brochure.pdf (student/family)
https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/InterventionReports/wwc_copingpower_102511.pdf (research)
 Resources

The University of Alabama. (2017). The Coping Power Program. Coping Power. Retrieved
January 16, 2022, from https://www.copingpower.com/program_components.html

U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse

(2011, October). Intervention report: Coping Power. Retrieved from
http://whatworks.ed.gov.