Social skills training as a treatment for aggressive children and adolescents: a developmental–clinical integration

doi:10.1016/S1359-1789(00)00040-9

Aggression and Violent Behavior

Volume 7, Issue 2, March–April 2002, Pages 169-199

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1359-1789(00)00040-9 Get rights and content

Abstract

Social skills training (SST) has emerged as a frontline treatment approach for aggressive children and adolescents. The present review evaluates this sizable literature from a developmental–clinical perspective. More specifically, the review summarizes key developmental findings, assesses the status of existing efforts to integrate these developmental findings into clinical research, and discusses intervention implications. Summaries of developmental findings are divided into six major areas: age, gender, race, identification of intervention samples, social cognition, and peer group influences. The review indicates that efforts to incorporate developmental findings and principles into clinical research have fallen woefully short. Even the most fundamental developmental considerations were frequently overlooked. Despite these general limitations, the review highlights a number of noteworthy developmental–clinical integration attempts and concludes with a discussion of directions for future research.

Section snippets

Intervention approaches

The more than 50 treatment studies reviewed are grouped according to developmental level and summarized in Table 1, Table 2, Table 3. For review purposes, the intervention studies are grouped broadly and discussed as follows: (1) SST, (2) cognitive–behavioral skills training, and (3) multicomponent cognitive–behavioral skills training.

Developmental findings and clinical implications

We now turn to our review of key developmental findings and their clinical implications. Given our sense of the limited nature of past integration attempts, we decided to weight this review more toward fundamental developmental factors, which include age, gender, race, and the identification of intervention samples. Also included are two areas of developmental inquiry, social cognition and peer group influences, selected on the basis of their potential clinical impact.

Summary and conclusions

The SST literature clearly offers an impressive array of effective treatments for aggressive children and adolescents. As evidenced in this review, these interventions are not only capable of ameliorating aggression but building prosocial skill repertoires as well. Efforts to incorporate developmental findings and principles within this literature, however, have fallen woefully short. Indeed, our review revealed that even the most fundamental developmental considerations were frequently

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Social skills training as a treatment for aggressive children and adolescents: a developmental–clinical integration

Abstract

Section snippets

Intervention approaches

Developmental findings and clinical implications

Summary and conclusions

Behavior Therapy

Behavior Therapy

Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Manual for the child behavior checklist and 1991 profile

Social problem-solving training for severely emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children

Behavioral Disorders

Peer rejection and loneliness in childhood

The effects of social skills training and peer involvement on the social adjustment of preadolescents

Child Development

Social skills training in the fast track program

Improving the social behavior and peer acceptance of rejected boys: effects of social skill training with instructions and prohibitions

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Developmental issues in social-skills assessment and intervention with children and adolescents

Behavior Modification

Characteristics of aggressive-rejected, aggressive (non-rejected) and rejected (non-aggressive) boys

Child Development

Predicting the longitudinal course associated with aggressive-rejected, aggressive (nonrejected), and rejected (nonaggressive) status

Development and Psychopathology

Do girls manipulate and boys fight? Developmental trends in regard to direct and indirect aggression

Aggressive Behavior

Social skills training for highly aggressive children

Behavior Modification

Social development: the origins and plasticity of interchanges

Early school dropout: configurations and determinants

Child Development

Social networks and aggressive behavior: peer support or peer rejection?

Developmental Psychology

Aggression and antisocial behavior

Adapting intervention to the problems of aggressive and disruptive rejected children

Predicting early adolescent disorder from childhood aggression and peer rejection

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

A developmental and clinical model for the prevention of conduct disorder: the fast track program

Development of PsychoPathology

Initial impact of the fast track trial for conduct problems: I. The high-risk sample

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Initial impact of the fast track trial for conduct problems: II. Classroom effects

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Relational aggression: the role of intent attributions, feelings of distress, and provocation type

Development and Psychopathology

The role of overt aggression, relational aggression, and prosocial behavior in the prediction of children's future social adjustment

Child Development

Gender differences in children's normative beliefs about aggression: how did I hurt thee? Let me count the ways

Child Development

A review and reformulation of social information-processing mechanisms in children's social adjustment

Psychological Bulletin

Relational aggression, gender, and social-psychological

Child Development

Anger reduction in early adolescents

Journal of Counseling Psychology

The effects of peer relationships on the functions of interpersonal behaviors of children

Journal of Clinical Child Psychology

When interventions harm: peer groups and problem behavior

American Psychologist

Peer adaptations in the development of antisocial behavior: a confluence model

Family, school, and behavioral antecedents to early adolescent involvement with antisocial peers

Developmental Psychology

Social cognition and children's aggressive behavior

Child Development

A social information processing model of social competence in children

Feedback in classroom behavior modification: effects on the target and her classmates

Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis

Sociometric and disruptive behavior as a function of four types of token reinforcement programs

Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis

Adolescents at risk: prevalence and prevention

Effectiveness of cognitive–behavioral therapy for maladapting children: a meta-analysis

Psychological Bulletin

The social cognitive treatment of anger and aggression in four adolescents with conduct disorder

Journal of Instructional Psychology

Adolescent psychiatric patients: modifying aggressive behavior with social skills training

Behavior Modification

Young children's emotional arousal and anger/aggressive behaviors

Social skills training of preschool children