Although girls make up a small portion of students identified as having emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD), there has been a steady and significant increase in the number of violent incidences in schools involving girls. Yet few intervention programs are in place to address the unique needs of girls with EBD problems of an aggressive nature. This study examined the effectiveness of Time Away (TA), a conflict resolution program emphasizing social skill training currently being employed at the elementary school level in an Indiana school district. TA involves three phases (Albrecht, 1992): timeout---after several unsuccessful attempts by the teacher to resolve conflicts, the offending student is sent to the TA room and placed in a 10-min timeout ("cool down") period; redirection---the student then participates briefly in an academic ("getting back on track") activity; and conflict resolution---a subsequent debriefing period during which time the student is encouraged to examine the events leading to the problem behavior, the specific unacceptable actions that resulted in removal from the classroom, and the consequences along with possible alternative actions that could avoid such problems in the future.; This study compared two school districts, one using TA and another using traditional disciplinary practices. TA referrals and disciplinary referrals were compared for both school districts and variables such as gender, socioeconomic status, and the number of referrals made were analyzed. In addition, teachers using TA were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the effectiveness of the TA program and their possible use of it in the future. Their responses to open-ended survey questions were examined qualitatively by grouping them according to themes that emerged from a content analysis.; Results of the referral analysis gave support to its effectiveness for girls: In the school district where TA was implemented, girls received 30% fewer referrals than boys in that district and 28% fewer referrals than either boys or girls in the comparison school district that did not use TA. Possible reasons for these results along with recommendations for improving the TA program are discussed.
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