The Pilot Study

Let’s take ourselves to Sydney, 2008. As the new school counsellor at an all girls’ school, my first agenda was to understand the school’s welfare needs. Without hesitation teachers described what they saw as one of their most prominent challenges; helping students to better manage friendships and interpersonal conflict. The teachers had identified that much of their time each day was consumed responding to peer conflict. They sought direction regarding “best-practice” strategies to respond to these conflicts in a way that would support and nurture students’ social development.

I had access to many interventions and strategies from past work in co- educational schools. These interventions, however, largely focused on overt displays of anger and physical aggression, and often reported greater outcomes for boys than for girls. But in this girls’ school, overt aggression was uncommon.

Through my counselling role at the school I gained insights about the students’ peer conflicts. From grade two onwards the following scenario was common. One girl would upset, annoy or anger another girl. A moment of tension ensued. Words might be exchanged. Then one would leave, retreating to a friend to retell the event, and receive support, sympathy and advice. The other girl also retreated to her friends, for similar support. Sometimes the friends actively involved themselves by playing peace- maker. Sometimes the friends passionately defended their helpless, vulnerable friend. Subsequently, the girls either agreed to move on from the issue and restore the friendship, sought help from a teacher to resolve the matter, or avoided one another entirely, leaving the conflict unresolved. The latter two strategies were common, and for some, conflict occurred on a weekly basis.

For a small proportion of girls, hostility escalated and became vindictive. Revenge often took the form of relational aggression which involved causing hurt by damaging another girl’s relationships and reputation. The damage was achieved by revealing sworn secrets, spreading rumours and turning to allies to help exclude and segregate enemies. For the allies involved, their motivations were often simple. “You have hurt my friend, so I will help my friend, and protect them from you. Their enemies are now my enemies.” With strength in numbers, the experience of rejection and aggression was amplified.

My response to the school’s needs was a plan to introduce a universal intervention to teach all students about interpersonal conflict and productive conflict management strategies. However, an Australian evidence-based universal intervention for girls, with an emphasis on interpersonal conflict, was elusive. The most common universal intervention used in Australian schools focused on general social skills, and lacked supporting evidence of effectiveness in spite of widespread use (Slee et al., 2009). There are a few gender-specific international interventions designed to reduce conflict between girls, but they have been written for very specific cohorts of girls, and the evidence base is not yet strong.

With time on my hands having moved to a new school and a new city, I set myself to the task. I explored theories regarding children’s social processing, interpersonal conflict and relational aggression. My aim was to develop an engaging intervention for girls that would embed a shared language and skill set across the cohort to build their interpersonal skills and, in particular, to better manage interpersonal conflict. I was most influenced by the Social Information Processing (SIP) model (Crick & Dodge, 1994). The intervention which resulted was called the Friendship Saver Program, an intervention designed to be delivered to the whole class through facilitated discussions, group work activities, and drama-based games. While not all girls might seek out or relate to a gendered intervention, the themes addressed within this intervention are based upon social and cultural behaviours most commonly associated with girls in modern-day Australia, in particular girls in middle-primary school.

In its first pilot year, the Friendship Saver Program was delivered in classrooms across the junior school and was received with enthusiasm by students, teachers and parents. This lead to a trip back to Melbourne and a PhD research thesis that spanned from 2009 till 2020. This thesis was undertaken to formally evaluate the Friendship Saver Program across several Australian girls’ schools and examine the effectiveness of this universal program for teaching social information processing skills to girls.

The popularity of the program lead to several mini pilot programs, delivering the program with all genders, and also trialling the program as a clinical tool and withdrawal program.

The PhD research outcomes, and subsequent pilot projects led to the development of the Social Stencil program, inclusive of all genders, neuro-affirming, and forever evolving as we continue to learn.