Social skills training: an evaluation of an elementary school program

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a schoolwide social skills training program. Two groups of elementary school children (twenty-six new transfer-in students and thirty-two students who had been in the program for two years, n = 58) were administered questionnaires at pre and at six months post to see if there were changes in social skill ratings and behaviour ratings. Students aged 8 to 1 2 were randomly selected from Grades 3 to 6 classrooms to participate in this study. Separate versions of the Social Skills Rating Scale were administered to both teachers and children. It was expected that all students would improve in their social skills and problem behavior scores. In addition, it was hypothesized that new students would show a greater improvement in both social skills and problem behavior scores than the two year group. Results indicated that neither social skills or problem behaviours improved. In addition, students new to the school were not significantly different from students who had participated in the program for more than two years. However, there were significant findings in relation to age.