How participating in a group-based anger management program changed Japanese mothers' cognition, attitude, and behavior: A pre-post pilot study

Background: Excessive inappropriate expressions of anger is one of the most common forms of child maltreatment and can cause serious long-term physical and psychosocial damage to children. Helping parents with anger management is essential to prevent child maltreatment and mental health issues among children and parents. Purpose: This pilot study aimed to investigate how participating in a group-based Anger Management Program for Parents (AMPP) may reduce mother-reported anger and change mothers' cognition, attitudes, and behaviors. Procedure: Fifty Japanese mothers with at least one child between the age of 4 and 12 years participated in three AMPP small group sessions (94% attendance). Participants self-reported changes using the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI) at pre- and post-test (100% response) and at a two-month follow-up (90% response). The post-test and follow-up also included an original retrospective questionnaire to evaluate the AMPP's effects on participant cognition, attitudes, and behaviors. Main findings: As a primary outcome, the participant STAXI anger-control significantly improved at post-test compared to pre-test. As secondary outcomes, participant STAXI trait anger, anger-out, and anger-control scores improved at post-test and follow-up. The original questionnaire showed that 96% of participants saw their anger more objectively and 92% had kind feelings for their child more at post-test. 87% hit their child less often at follow-up. Conclusion: By participating in the AMPP, mothers developed better anger-control and experienced positive changes in their cognition, attitudes, and behaviors about anger and parenting. This short pilot program significantly improved the mother-child relationship and many changes were sustained at follow-up.