A Meta-Analysis of Social Skill Interventions for Students with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders
Title
A Meta-Analysis of Social Skill Interventions for Students with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders
Author
Quinn, M.M., Kavale, K.A., Mathur, S.R., Rutherford , R.B., & Forness, S.R.
Source
Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 7(1), 54.
Year Published
1999 ( Spring)
Background
Many children with emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) display social skill deficits that can add to their difficulties in school. Such deficits may exhibit themselves in a number of ways, including:
- Inappropriate interactions with others, including classmates and teachers;
- Difficulty in expressing physical or emotional needs;
- Poor understanding of social cues, rules, or manners;
- Violence, aggression, or other disruptive behavior.
Social skills training has been used with children with EBD in an effort to improve their interpersonal relationships. Supportive social networks, in turn, can result in more favorable outcomes both inside and outside of the classroom. Social skills training typically involves any of the following:
- Identifying particular social skills in need of improvement;
- Explaining why a particular social skill is important;
- Demonstrating or modeling appropriate skills for the child to see;
- Having the child practice new skills in role-playing situations with a trained coach who can provide feedback and reinforcement;
- Helping the child identify various social situations in which skills might be applied.
Research Questions
Examines the effects of participation in social skills training programs on students with emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD), as well as the effect sizes of different types of social skills interventions. Specific research questions include:
- What is the nature and overall effect of social skills training for students with EBD?
- Does this effect vary depending on how long the treatment lasts, the person who judges effectiveness, or the research design?
- Does the effect differ when specific constructs are used to measure social skills?
- Does the effect size differ depending on the type of dependent measures used?
Findings
- Social skills training programs had small effects in improving the social skills of students with EBD.
- Training programs had a greater effect in reducing students’ anxiety levels.
Conclusion/Recommendations
Social skills training programs for students with EBD appear to have modest effects. The authors offer several suggestions to explain why social skills training proves to be only minimally effective.
- On average, these programs were only 30 hours long (2.5 hours over 12 weeks). The researchers suggest that these interventions may not have been long enough or thorough enough to have an effect.
- Social skills intervention programs cover a wide range of skills. Students, on the other hand, may benefit more from a focused training that addresses their specific social skills deficits.
- Skills taught in the intervention programs may not correspond to the types of skills teachers are hoping to see improved in classroom settings.
Overall, the researchers suggest that students with EBD would benefit more from social skills instruction that is tailored to each student’s individual skill deficits and that focuses on skills valued by both the students and their teachers.