Using a group process to empower adolescents girls to deal with relational aggression

Emotional wellbeing and resilient behaviour is of fundamental importance and inhibited by the well documented prevalence of relational aggression amongst adolescent girls in schools. This often subtle and insidious form of aggression damages relationships within peer groups either by excluding and isolating girls from the group or by damaging their reputation. Research is showing that the outcome of relational aggression can be loss of self-esteem, school avoidance or more serious psychological damage often leading to mental illness. A girl's friendship group consisting of 12 members was invited to take part in four sessions of group work run by the school counsellors to examine the nature of the conflict arising in their group and to learn better ways of dealing with this. The group facilitated open and honest discussion with clear articulation of the problems each experiences, together with attempts to deal with these problems. The process of developing pro-social skills, empathy and effective conflict resolution skills has resulted in greater emotional literacy of the girls in this group and the girls report being empowered to deal with conflict.