Role of social skills training in adolescents with social anxiety disorder

Background/Objective: Social skills training (SST) is frequently included in the treatment of social anxiety disorder (SAD) in both children and adolescents, although there is no empirical evidence to support it. Consequently, our objective is to study the role and effects of SST in the treatment of a sample of adolescents with SAD. Method: A total of 108 adolescents diagnosed with generalized social phobia were randomly assigned to two treatment conditions (with and without SST) and a control group waiting list (WLCG). The evaluation included self-report measures, observational tests and blind evaluators. Results: Both interventions significantly reduced the number of social situations feared/avoided with respect to the WLCG, which worsened. Likewise, both interventions were effective but the group with SST obtained better results in the post-test and follow-ups, as well as a lower dropout rate (6:1). Conclusions: The use of SST reduces the dropout rate of treated adolescents and increases the effectiveness of the Intervention Program for Adolescents with Social Phobia.     

Social skills training for young adolescents

A systematic assertiveness training program was developed for adolescents, based on Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory. The program, which focused on peer interactions and social responsibility, consisted of six 40-minute semi-weekly sessions and was presented to a class of 22 sixth-grade social studies students in a middle school. Cognitive acquisition of the information was measured with multiple-choice tests administered immediately after training and at a 6-month follow-up. Trained students performed significantly better than a control group on the posttest (p less than .01) and on the 6-month follow-up (p less than .02), demonstrating that young adolescents can acquire and retain the symbolic information that forms a basis for assertive behavior.     

An evaluation of intraverbal training and listener training for teaching categorization skills

The effects of vocal intraverbal training and listener training on the emergence of untrained categorization skills were evaluated. Five typically developing preschool children initially learned to name a number of previously unfamiliar visual stimuli. Each child then received one of two types of training. Intraverbal training involved reinforcing vocally emitted category names by the child in the presence of a spoken exemplar name. Listener training involved reinforcing the selection of visual stimuli by the child in the presence of a spoken category name. A multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the effects of training on each child's intraverbal category naming and stimulus selection. Pre- and posttests were used to assess additional emergent relations. Four of 5 participants did not demonstrate the emergence of any untrained relations. The current findings suggest that additional research is needed to determine the optimal sequencing of conditions in programs designed to teach categorization skills.     

Application of social skills training in a group of institutionalized aggressive elderly subjects

A social skills training program consisting of instructions, modeling, role playing, and feedback was carried out with a group of 6 verbally aggressive institutionalized elderly patients. Dependent measures included confirmed incidents of verbal aggressive behavior monitored across an ABAB design with a 5-month follow-up period. Results indicated that verbally aggressive behavior can be significantly decreased in a group-training setting and subsequently generalized to ward and other socialized behavior. Ancillary aspects of the study include the role of social reinforcement, participant modeling, and staff attitude, perception, and motivation. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Teaching social perception skills to adolescents with autism and intellectual disabilities using video‐based group instruction

Few interventions focus on teaching social skills to adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disabilities (ID) that are consistently used during interactions with peers ( Carter et al., 2014). The present study evaluated the effects of video‐based group instruction (VGI) on the acquisition of social perception skills of five adolescents with ASD or ID in a public school setting. Social perception involves observing affective behaviors of others, discriminating relevant environmental stimuli, and differentially reinforcing the affective behavior of another person. Typically developing peers supported VGI implementation as social partners for participants. A multiple probe design across behaviors demonstrated the effectiveness of VGI for teaching social perception skills. Four of five participants acquired and maintained the targeted social perception skills, and we observed some transfer to a nontreatment setting. Results of this study suggest VGI may support the acquisition of social perception among adolescents with ASD or ID.     

Assessment of social skills in visually-handicapped adolescents

The present study provided a comprehensive behavioral assessment of social skill in visually-handicapped adolescents. Role-play tests, standardized interviews, parent ratings and judgements of physical attractiveness were employed to evaluate level of social functioning among: (1) 18 visually-handicapped adolescents in a residential school; (2) 17 visually-handicapped adolescents in public schools; and (3) 17 sighted adolescents in public schools. Results indicated that visually-handicapped adolescents exhibited deficits on selected verbal components of social skill. Moreover, these deficiencies were most apparent in visually-handicaped Ss from a residential setting. Findings are discussed in terms of the utility of social skills training for a subset of visually-handicapped adolescents and the importance of additional controlled research with visually-handicapped persons.     

Parent‐implemented behavioral skills training of social skills

Impairment in social skills is a primary feature of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). Research indicates that social skills are intimately tied to social development and negative social consequences can persist if specific social behaviors are not acquired. The present study evaluated the effects of behavioral skills training (BST) on teaching four parents of children with ASDs to be social skills trainers. A nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across parent–child dyads was employed and direct observation was used to assess parent and child behaviors Results demonstrated substantial improvement in social skills teaching for all participants for trained and untrained skills. Ancillary measures of child performance indicated improvement in skills as well. High levels of correct teaching responses were maintained at a 1 month follow‐up. This study extends current literature on BST while also providing a helpful, low‐effort strategy to modify how parents can work with their children to improve their social skills.     

An investigation of the matrix training approach to teach social play skills

Matrix training is a conceptual model inspired by the generative learning approach to program development. This investigation used matrix training to facilitate a generative repertoire of two‐component solitary and social play skills in a child diagnosed with autism and cerebral palsy. Play‐related actions and corresponding toys were aligned on perpendicular axes of a standard matrix. The learner was trained on the skills that intersected along the diagonal of the matrix. The learner acquired both appropriate solitary and social play skills. The participant also began requesting items from a peer despite not having been directly trained to do so. The untrained combinations accounted for 86% of the matrix responses acquired.     

A controlled evaluation of systematic desensitisation and social skills training for socially inadequate psychiatric patients.

A controlled study of systematic desensitisation and social skills training was carried out on a sample of socially inadequate psychiatric patients. The results showed that both treatments led to significant improvements in the patients' social lives, which, in the case of social skills training were maintained at 6 months follow-up. Neither treatment, however, led to significantly greater anxiety reduction, improvements in social skills or clinical adjustment than the untreated control. Systematic desensitisation ran into a number of procedural difficulties and there was a substantial drop-out rate during treatment. Both treatments are discussed in the light of these mixed results and suggestions made for further research in this area.     

Cognitive changes associated with social skills training

Changes in locus of control and self-esteem during social skills training and at 6 month follow-up were investigated. Forty-four adolescent, male offenders were randomly assigned to a social skills training, attention-placebo, or no-treatment control procedure. The results showed that pre- to post-training increases in self-esteem were produced for both the social skills training and attention-placebo control groups, but not for the no-treatment control group. These increases did not continue during the follow-up phase; the social skills training group, which showed the greatest improvement during training, displayed a decrease in self- esteem during follow-up.The locus of control measures showed a statistically significant shift towards internality for the social skills training group during training, which was not found for the attention-placebo and no-treatment controls. During the follow-up phase, all three groups showed a statistically significant shift towards externality, suggesting a tendency for boys to view their behaviour and consequences as being under the control of chance factors or powerful others, during institutionalization. This effect was partly reversed during training for the social skills training group, but the effect was not long lasting. It seems therefore that social skills training is effective in producing an increase in self-esteem and a shift towards internal locus of control. These changes are, however, of short duration and the self-esteem shift may be the result of increased staff contact or other non-specific therapy factors.     

Generalization effects of social skills training in chronic schizophrenics: An experimental analysis

Social skills training was administered to three (one male and two female) chronic schizophrenic patients in a Partial Hospitalization Service. Treatment consisted of instructions. feedback and modeling, and was administered in 25. 26 and 31 sessions, respectively, for the three patients. Target behaviors were identified for each patient based on his/her responses to role-played interactions involving male and female partners in situations requiring commendatory or hostile assertion. Five to seven target behaviors were selected for each subject and were treated sequentially in a multiple baseline format. Skills training was highly successful for the two female patients but was only partially effective for the male patient. Two forms of generalization measures were included, indicating that the effects of training generalized from trained to untrained, and trained to novel role-played interactions. Follow-up assessments for the two female patients indicated that most of the effects persisted over 8–10-week post-treatment periods.