Evaluation of a Group Treatment of Urban Black Adolescent Females Exposed to Violence

Abstract

The current study examined the effectiveness of GTREM, a group treatment for urban Black adolescent females exposed to violence on their symptoms of aggression, anger, and depression. Aggression was measured using the Aggression Questionnaire- AQ (Buss and Warren, 2000). Depressive symptoms were measured using the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale-2-RADS-2 (Reynolds, 2002). Participants consisted of 110 urban Black adolescent females selected from six DC Public and Public Charter Schools. Results confirmed that the G-TREM group treatment significantly decreased the externalizing behaviors of aggression and anger and the internalizing symptoms of depressive symptoms for urban black females exposed to violence. The results indicated that the differences in decrease of symptoms experienced by the G-TREM participants were meaningful. One final result showed that treatment was more effective as participants' grade level increased.