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.     

Social skills training with adolescent male offenders: I. Short-term effects

The effect of a social skills training programme consisting of instructions, modelling, role playing, videotaped feedback and social reinforcement, was examined in a multiple baseline design with five adolescent male offenders. Training led to specific improvements in certain target behaviours. It was found that, whereas improvements in the performance of certain skills such as appropriate eye contact could be brought about relatively quickly, certain listening skills proved much harder to train. Where training was effective in producing improvements in the performance of a skill, these changes were generally maintained at two weeks follow-up.     

Social skills training with hospitalized adolescents: an evaluative experiment

The effectiveness of social skills training on adolescent males admitted to a psychiatric hospital was evaluated through the use of empirically derived anger scenarios, blind raters, matched experimental and control treatment groups, and a repeated measures analysis. Results indicated that the social skills training effectively improved the dimension of verbal response and eye contact. Facial expression did not show measurable improvement. The use of specific skills components and scoring criteria in the social skills training was emphasized. Overall, support was found for the efficacy of social skills training for hospitalized adolescents.     

Social skills training for juvenile delinquents

Twenty-seven incarcerated juvenile delinquents matched on the number of previous offenses, age, WISC-R IQ, and locus of control were assigned to a Social Skills. Discussion or Control group. Social skills training consisted of instruction, feedback, modeling, behavior rehearsal, social reinforcement and graduated homework assignments. All subjects were assessed before and after treatment on a variety of self-report, role-play and behavioral measures. Analyses of variance for difference scores indicated that the Social Skills group improved significantly more than the Discussion and Control groups, which did not differ. Appropriate interpersonal skills were learned, state anxiety was reduced, internal locus of control was increased, and significant shifts in adjustment to the institutional program were evidenced for the Social Skills group.     

Making a case for case studies in psychotherapy training: A small step towards establishing an empirical basis for psychotherapy training

The evidence debate in psychotherapy pays little attention to developing an evidence base for training practices. Understanding effective training requires an examination of what makes training work. This article examines the role of case studies in psychotherapy training. This has not been articulated explicitly or researched systematically in spite of its cardinal importance. An analysis of the role of case studies in psychotherapy training is presented. Reading, watching, or hearing about cases can offer novice psychotherapists access to a closed world; access to psychological theory in action; access to whole courses of therapy; access to different approaches; access to significant moments; access to the therapeutic relationship; access to a wide range of client types; access to working in different contexts; and the opportunity of identifying with therapists and clients. Writing or presenting cases offer students the opportunity of: learning to integrate information into a relevant whole; being in the ‘hot seat’; learning to give appropriate feedback; assessing the validity of interpretations, inferences, and interventions; adapting methods to suit the client; and learning to collaborate with other professionals. The paper presents directions for future research into psychotherapy training, specifically proposing an international survey of training practices at psychotherapy training institutions.     

Evaluation of behavioral skills training for teaching abduction-prevention skills to young children

This study examined the effectiveness of individual behavioral skills training in conjunction with in situ training in teaching 13 preschool children abduction prevention skills. Children's performance was measured during baseline, training, and at 2-week, 1-month, and 3-month follow-ups using in situ assessments in which abduction prevention skills were measured in naturalistic settings. Results revealed that all the children learned the skills and all the children available at the 2-week and 1-month follow-ups maintained the skills at criterion level. All but 3 children's criterion-level performances were maintained at the 3-month follow-up as well.     

Problem-solving skills training: Social validation and generalization

This study developed and evaluated a program for teaching a verbal problem-solving strategy to mildly mentally handicapped adults. Six general areas were targeted for training: Community Awareness, Authority Figures, Peer Issues, Stating One's Rights, Emergencies and Injuries, and Safety. The program features response-specific feedback, modeling, self-monitoring, positive reinforcement, response practice, self-correction, and individualized performance criterion levels. The experimental group (N = 3) received baseline, training, probes, and pre/posttraining generalization assessments, whereas the control group (N = 3) received only the pre/posttraining assessments. The generalization and probe assessments contained situations that were both similar and dissimilar to the training situations. The three month posttraining results revealed that the experimental subjects' problem-solving skills had generalized to both types of situations, whereas the control group showed little overall change. Furthermore, the experimental group's three month scores were comparable to those of a group of nonhandicapped individuals. Issues related to these results and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Posttraumatic play in young children exposed to terrorism: An empirical study

The phenomenon of “posttraumatic play” (PTP) has received much clinical recognition and little empirical support. The objective of this study was to examine various aspects of PTP in young children exposed to terror events and their relation to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Individual play sessions, conducted with 29 young Israeli children directly exposed to terrorism (M age = 5.47, SD = 1.34) and 25 matched unexposed children (M age = 5.62, SD = 0.87), were coded using the Children's Play Therapy Instrument–Adaptation for Terror Research (CPTI‐ATR; S.E. Chazan & E. Cohen, 2003). Analyses using these ratings showed (a) significant differences between the two groups, (b) significant associations with the caregiver's reports on child's exposure, and (c) significant associations with the caregiver's reports on the child's PTSD symptoms. Play activity ratings of predominant negative affects, frequent acting‐out/morbid themes, lowered developmental level, and reduced awareness of the child of him‐ or herself as a player significantly predicted more PTSD symptoms. PTP which included more coping strategies classified as “overwhelmed reexperiencing” and less “reenactment with soothing” was associated with a higher level of PTSD. Play analysis with the CPTI‐ATR may be helpful in identifying PTSD in children and also guide the selection of therapeutic techniques.     

Problem-solving skills training for psychiatric inpatients: An analysis of generalization

A program for teaching problem-solving skills was evaluated with six psychiatric inpatients in a multiple baseline across groups design. Subjects received training on 12 problem situations and the generalization of verbal problem-solving to six novel situations was assessed via probes presented by a novel person in an untrained setting. The generalization of overt behavior was assessed via pre/post contrived in vivo assessments that contained six situations used in training. The in vivo situations were integrated within a sequence of ongoing events in an effort to enhance the ‘naturalness’ of the assessment. The probes revealed some improvement in verbal problem-solving skills, whereas minimal improvement occurred in the post in vivo test. Following the study, an attempt was made to enhance performance by having the trainer conduct a probe and adding verbal prompts to evoke problem-solving during an additional in vivo assessment. Both efforts produced improvements in subjects' performance to a level near that achieved by a normative sample of 20 individuals. The results suggest that in vivo problem-solving may be dependent on the methods used in presenting problem situations as well as situational factors. Issues related to these results and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Group interpersonal skills training in a natural setting: an experimental study.

This study assessed effectiveness of group interpersonal skills training conducted in a natural setting with nonanalogue clients. Subjects (Ss) in a behavioral-training condition received 4 hr of instruction consisting of modeling, behavioral rehearsal, coaching, feedback and reinforcement. Training focused on positive and negative social responses and on initiating interactions, as well as reacting to interactions initiated by others. Subjects in a discussion-control condition engaged in focused discussion of interpersonal concerns but received no experiential practice. Within a pre-test-post-test control group design, subjective and objective measures were used to assess training effects. When compared to Ss involved in group discussion. Ss participating in group behavioral training revealed greater pre- to post-test changes on selfreported probability of engaging in selected interpersonal responses and on objective measures of eye contact, speech duration, positive affective responses, use of no-statements, compliance, refusals and requests for new behavior. Support for generalization of training is presented and methodological issues are discussed.     

‘Play skills’ for shy children: development of a Social Skills Facilitated Play early intervention program for extremely inhibited preschoolers

The aim of the present study was to develop and provide a preliminary evaluation of a social‐skills‐based early intervention program specifically designed to assist extremely inhibited preschoolers. Participants were a sample of n=22 extremely inhibited preschool‐aged children, who were randomly assigned to either the Social Skills Facilitated Play (SST) or Waitlist Control (WLC) condition. As compared to wait‐list controls, extremely inhibited children who participated in the SST‐facilitated play program sessions demonstrated a significantly greater post‐intervention decrease in observed socially wary behaviours and a significantly greater increase in social and socially competent behaviours at preschool. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of developing and refining early intervention programs for extremely inhibited young children. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social skills: A review of cognitive-behavioral training procedures with children

Thirty-one studies utilizing cognitive-behavioral procedures to train social skills were reviewed. The review was organized around six methodological issues: (a) age of subjects; (b) training procedures; (c) outcome measures; (d) research design; (e) evidence for generalization; and (f) social validation. Suggestions for future applied research are discussed, such as investigations regarding developmental changes in socially skilled behavior, increased use of multiple dependent measures, more intensive programming for generalization, and the establishment of the social importance of the effects of social skills training programs.     

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.