Psychotherapeutic interventions with children have not been as successful in practice as laboratory studies suggest. Two weaknesses frequently cited include the failure of treatment gains to generalize to other times and settings and the lack of individualization. Although social skills interventions have inherent appeal and appear appropriate to address many of the social and emotional problems encountered by children and youth, they have not demonstrated effectiveness despite their widespread use. This article outlines four steps to improve social skills interventions that take advantage of the unique environments of schools and increase the likelihood that social skills interventions can achieve individualization and generalization.

A six-session eating disorder prevention program was completed with three samples: middle school, high school, and college females. The program was intended to promote resiliency factors while mitigating risk factors that had been identified earlier by hierarchical multiple regression analyses and subsequent path analyses from a large epidemiological sample (Phelps, Johnston, & Augustyniak, 1999). Utilizing this etiological model, the program was successful in: (a) facilitating an acknowledgement of the ubiquitous pressures for attainment of the model skeletal look; (b) changing attitudes about standards of beauty; (c) altering the participants' current and future intentional use of pharmaceutical aids or disordered eating behaviors (e.g., fasting, strenuous dieting, purging, excessive exercise) as methods of weight control; (d) building physical self-esteem and personal competence; and (e) reducing body dissatisfaction. To facilitate replication, the article includes a description of the objectives and activities for each of the six sessions. It is recommended that future research efforts focus on testing the long-term efficacy of this program.

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