Sandy, S. V., & Boardman, S. K. (2000). The peaceful kids conflict resolution program. International Journal of Conflict Management, 11(4), 337-357.
The theme or key idea for this article was the presentation of the Peaceful Kids Early Childhood Social-Emotional (ECSEL) Conflict Resolution Program, along with an evaluation of its outcome.
The problem studied was conflict among children in preschool, which is frequently overlooked in favor of programs for older children. Violence in older children may be due to cognitive and emotional problems in younger years and the ECSEL program is therefore designed to respond to the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral needs of preschoolers to avoid later violence.
A primary hypotheses for this study was formally stated: Training that included the parent and staff training would result in greater skillsÆ development and decreased levels of aggressive behavior and conflict avoidance in children than either a staff condition or a control condition.
Research questions for this study were not formally stated, however, use of the question of whether parent and staff training would be more effective than staff alone and control conditions, and whether the ECSEL program was successful, were implied.
The predictions for this study were formally stated in the directional hypothesis.
The article provided an adequate bibliography to support the study, with an introduction to the problem and reasons for predictions, literature to support aspects of the program, and comparisons of findings to previous research studies.
The sample for the study included 404 preschoolers, ages 2.5 to six. This sample was drawn from the day care and Head Start centers in New York City and surrounding areas. Random selection of subjects resulted in 54% female, and ethnic variations (155 Latinos, 120 African Americans, 15 European Americans, 11 Black West Indian, 4 Asians, and 25 others). From this group, ...