In sum, the current findings emphasize the important influence of child characteristics, including biological factors, on group-based intervention outcomes. Lochman et al. (2015) previously reported that the child’s level of inhibitory control moderated the format effect on intervention outcomes. Here we present a unique and different characteristic of the child that may influence how the child interacts with other youth in the sessions. These social mechanisms can be tested in future research. This study adds to a growing body of literature which has found that genes associated with dopamine (Bakermans-Kranenburg, Van, Pijlman, Mesman, & Juffer, 2008; Brody et al., 2014 (African-American sample)), serotonin (Brody, Beach, Philibert, Chen, & Murry, 2009 (African-American sample)), and glucocorticoids (Albert et al., 2015) moderate responses to interventions designed to reduce behavior problems and negative outcomes in disadvantaged youth. These studies put us closer to understanding what works for whom so that interventions could potentially be individualized based on child characteristics, and help to give insight into the reasons by which preventive interventions such as Coping Power work well for some individuals but not others.
