Are you one of the thousands of Canadians who work or volunteer with children and youth? Do you know:

• • how to respond effectively when a young person behaves aggressively?
• • what kinds of aggression are considered normal for a young person’s age and stage of development?
• • what kinds of aggression may suggest that a young person has a problem that needs specialized intervention?

Acting Out aims to help you answer “yes” to these questions. It describes the causes of aggressive behaviour in young people, and discusses approaches to handling it.

Aggression among young people is an important social issue. Fortunately, early intervention and treatment can significantly reduce the risk of harmful outcomes. This book:

• • explains various types of aggressive behaviour exhibited by young people
• • identifies factors related to aggressive behaviour
• • distinguishes between normal aggression and aggression that is of greater concern
• • gives practical advice on how to address aggression in children and youth
• • highlights proven prevention and intervention strategies and indicates strategies to avoid
• • discusses the assessment and diagnosis of more serious aggressive behaviour in young people.

Acting Out is a valuable tool for anyone who works with young people, including teachers and school administrators, day-care and recreation centre workers, youth shelter workers, social service workers, sports coaches, youth leaders, camp counsellors and directors.

David A. Wolfe, PhD, ABPP, is a psychologist specializing in issues affecting children and youth — including prevention of bullying.

After completing his PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of South Florida in 1980, David Wolfe pursued an academic career in Canada focusing on child abuse and domestic violence. He holds the inaugural RBC Chair in Children’s Mental Health at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and heads the CAMH Centre for Prevention Science in London, Ontario. He is also Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Toronto. Since 2007 he has served as Editor-in-Chief of Child Abuse & Neglect: The International Journal.

David has received the Donald O. Hebb Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology as a Science from the Canadian Psychological Association, and the Blanche L. Ittleson Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Delivery of Childrens Services and the Promotion of Childrens Mental Health from the American Orthopsychiatric Association. His books include Adolescent Risk Behaviors: Why teens experiment and strategies to keep them safe (with P. Jaffe & C. Crooks; Yale University Press, 2006); Child abuse: Implications for child development and psychopathology, 2nd Edition (Sage, 1999); and Abnormal Child Psychology, 4th edition (with E. Mash; Wadsworth, 2009).

His interests in violence prevention have culminated into a comprehensive school-based initiative for reducing adolescent violence and related risk behaviors, known as the Fourth R. The Fourth R is currently used in over 800 high schools throughout Canada. It was recently identified as a top evidence-based program for school-based violence prevention by the New Jersey-based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, where it is being implemented in several US sites as part of their national violence-prevention initiative.

David A. Wolfe's profile page