Cynthia Hudley of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School publishes new book about children’s aggression

Cynthia Hudley of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School has published You Did That on Purpose: Understanding and Changing Children’s Aggression (Yale University Press, 2008). In this valuable book, parents and professionals who work with children will learn what can be done to better understand and control children’s aggression.

Beginning with a reader-friendly review of the literature, Cynthia Hudley underscores the substantial risks of long-term problems for elementary-school-age children who demonstrate aggressive behavior. Then, drawing on her work as founder of a successful school intervention program, the BrainPower Program, Hudley describes methods for reducing children’s peer-directed aggression. She concludes with a discussion of the importance of broad social contexts in supporting nonaggressive behavior.

“In a lively, highly readable volume, Dr. Hudley brings together theory and research on solutions to the problem of childhood aggression,” writes Karin Frey of the University of Washington. “She provides a clear and compelling explanation of the common errors in thinking that encourage aggression.”

Dr. Hudley is a professor in the Department of Education at the Gevirtz School. She has also served as Associate Dean of the UCSB Graduate Division. Her scholarship addresses children’s social development, with a specific focus on aggressive behavior and achievement motivation. Hudley has developed an aggression reduction curriculum, the BrainPower program, to improve peer relations in elementary school and is completing a volume for Yale University press that details the BrainPower curriculum. She has also served a co-editor of a volume on scholarship pertaining to the African-American experience, where she served as section editor on education and psychology.

In addition, Hudley has sat on several national advisory committees relevant to youth development, including an advisory committee for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that investigated disproportionate minority confinement among the incarcerated juvenile population. She is a Vice President of the American Educational Research Association, a member of the Board of Educational Affairs of the American Psychological Association, a past president for the national Association of Social and Behavioral Scientists, and a member of a number of editorial boards of scholarly journals. She serves locally as the vice president of the Board of Directors for the Endowment for Youth Committee (EYC) and is a member of the executive board of the Mayme A. Clayton Library, Museum, and Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

Prior to her academic career, Hudley spent 15 years as a professional educator, working with students with learning disorders and emotional disturbances at the middle school and high school levels, as well as with incarcerated juvenile populations.

[Cynthia Hudley is available for interviews; contact George Yatchisin at 805 893 5789]
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Cynthia Hudley of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School publishes new book about children’s aggression