Childhood aggression is very stable over time and predicts a number of poor adolescent outcomes.
Many of the social and economic correlates of childhood aggression are more prevalent among ethnic minorities. The authors developed their prevention program for aggressive youth based on an attribution theory of aggression, whereby the cognitive inability to appropriately interpret the intent of others actions may promote reactive aggression. The authors were also interested in the role of emotion in attribution theory and anger as a critical link between social cognition and aggression. The intervention consisted of three components. The first focused on helping the boys accurately detect intentionality in social situations.