Insights

Anyone who works with young people has experienced moments when tension builds, and behavior begins to escalate, sometimes to a point of crisis. In those moments that can be stressful and potentially unsafe, adults often need to respond quickly and effectively. Many traditional crisis intervention approaches focus primarily on managing behavior like this once it is already happening.

But what if we focused more on addressing the tension earlier, even before it arises? This might not be as hard as it sounds.

The Collaborative Problem Solving^® (CPS) approach provides a practical framework for understanding escalation and choosing responses that help prevent and reduce crises whenever possible. One helpful way to think about this is to think about escalation as a cycle. As described by Geoff Colvin and associates, escalation occurs in a cycle that includes seven phases: Calm, Trigger, Agitation, Acceleration, Peak, De-escalation, and Recovery. These can be further categorized by colors representing the intensity of the escalation: green, yellow, and red.

Recognizing these stages can help adults adjust their responses to support safety, regulation, relationship building, and effective problem-solving.

The Seven Phases of the Escalation Cycle

We present Collaborative Problem Solving^® as it relates to the seven commonly recognized phases of the behavioral escalation cycle (Colvin & Sugai, 1988):

1. Calm
2. Trigger
3. Agitation
4. Acceleration
5. Peak
6. De-escalation
7. Recovery

Collaborative Problem Solving can be used proactively or in the moment of a crisis to address varying degrees of escalation.

The escalation cycle considers both timing and degree of intensity. To help clarify how to effectively apply Collaborative Problem Solving across the different phases of the escalation cycle, we have categorized the phases

• Green indicates a low level of escalation
• Yellow indicates a medium level of escalation
• Red indicates a high level of escalation

The Green Zone of Escalation: Calmer Moments

In the green zone of escalation, a young person tends to be in a calmer state of mind. Their cognitive skills—such as flexibility, frustration tolerance, and problem solving—are more readily available than during moments of higher escalation. Because of this, it can be an optimal time for adults to connect with youth to identify recurring challenges and collaborate to work on solving them together to reduce the likelihood that those problems will later trigger escalation.

This is the best time to focus on proactive work. This means taking time to identify what recognizable patterns of situations or difficulties tend to create tension or crisis for this youth. Then decide how you will handle those difficulties before they happen again. For example, if bedtime is difficult every night, you can come up with a plan. This might include putting an incentive into place if the youth goes to bed on time, changing the expectations of bedtime to make it a bit easier for them, or sitting down with the youth during the day to problem-solve the bedtime issues together.

The Red Zone of Escalation: Crisis Moments

In the red zone of escalation, a young person’s thinking skills are significantly compromised. They may feel overwhelmed and unable to regulate their emotions or behavior.

At this point, the primary goal shifts from problem-solving to maintaining safety and helping the young person regain regulation.

During the red zone, strategies that rely on reasoning, teaching, or negotiation are usually ineffective because the young person’s cognitive resources are limited. Instead, adults focus on:

• Maintaining safety
• Reducing stimulation and demands
• Providing space and time for regulation
• Preserving the relationship

Once the young person has returned to a calmer state, adults can revisit the situation later to understand what led to the escalation and address the underlying problem collaboratively with the youth.

Collaborative Problem Solving: A Framework for Prevention and De-escalation

Recognizing the phases of escalation gives adults an important advantage: the ability to respond intentionally rather than reactively. But recognizing escalation is only part of the equation. Having a framework for deciding how to respond at each stage is what helps prevent situations from becoming crises whenever possible.

Collaborative Problem Solving provides that framework. Rather than viewing challenging behavior as something to control, CPS helps adults understand behavior as a signal that a young person is struggling with unmet expectations or lagging skills. This perspective shifts the focus from simply managing behavior to reducing the conditions that cause repeated crises.

CPS supports professionals across the full escalation cycle. During calmer moments, it provides a structured process for identifying and solving the problems that commonly trigger challenging behavior. As tension begins to rise, it encourages responses that reduce pressure, preserve regulation, and keep situations from escalating further. And during moments of crisis, it helps adults prioritize safety while recognizing that collaborative problem solving is most effective once the young person has regained the ability to think clearly.

By combining proactive problem solving with thoughtful responses during escalation, Collaborative Problem Solving helps create safer environments, strengthen relationships, and reduce the frequency and intensity of future crises. Rather than simply responding to challenging behavior, adults can build the skills, trust, and understanding that make those behaviors less likely to occur in the first place.

References

Colvin, Geoff. (2004). Managing the cycle of acting-out behavior in the classroom. Eugene, OR: Behavior Associates.

Colvin, G., & Scott, T. M. (2014). Managing the cycle of acting-out behavior in the classroom. Corwin Press.

Colvin, G., & Sugai, G. (1988). Proactive strategies for managing social behavior problems: An instructional approach. Education and Treatment of Children, 341-348.