Research on Interpersonal Problem-Solving Training

Abstract

This review assessed the efficacy of interpersonal problemsolving training in educational settings with children and youth with learning and behavior problems. Only studies with a clear metacognitive component were included. For each of the nine studies meeting selection criteria, descriptive summaries of the training were given. Findings indicate that although researchers were successful in demonstrating cognitive gains as a result of interpersonal problem-solving training, they were much less successful in demonstrating that cognitive gains were (a) subsequently applied to actual behavior or (b) generalized to other social behavior. Such findings call into question the basic premise of this literature-that interpersonal problem-solving training mediates social behavior and generalizes to other behaviors and settings. Based on the literature to date, recommendations for researchers and practitioners are offered.

Social Behavior and Skills in Children

“…Denham and Almeida (1987) noted similar findings in their meta-analysis showing that social problem-solving interventions produced strong effects on social problem-solving measures (d = 0.78) but weak effects on behavior ratings (d = 0.26). Coleman et al (1993) made similar interpretations by arguing that the data do not support the basic assumption that training in social skills mediates social behavior and generalizes to other behaviors or settings. made a similar point by stating that social skills treatment does not produce durable treatment outcomes and perhaps should involve more ecological training procedures that do not just acknowledge children's social environments but actively include them in the intervention.…”

“…A total of six meta-analyses of the social skills treatment literature have been conducted using students with or at risk for high-incidence disabilities Coleman, Wheeler, & Webber, 1993;Denham & Almeida, 1987;Mathur, Kavale, Quinn, Forness and Rutherford, 1998;Schneider, 1992). In a comprehensive meta-analytic investigation, Mathur et al analyzed 35 group and 64 single-case design studies with students having emotional and behavioral disorders.…”

Conflict education and special‐needs students, part two: Improving conflict competence and emotional competence

“…The second explanation may be that the length of the training intervention was insufficient to produce impact on a complex skill like perspective taking. The training was conducted over a three-month period, a time length that compares favorably with other related interventions for special-needs populations (Coleman, Wheeler, and Webber, 1993). Yet Greenberg, Kusche, Cook, and Quamma (1995) have argued that interventions for special-needs populations that attempt to affect perspective taking as a component of socialemotional development may take considerably longer to show an impact.…”

Is it Social Problem Solving or Decision Making?

“…14 Although training in these discrete social skills may enhance social functioning, they typically do not accentuate the meta-cognitive component provided by SPS, which emphasizes cognition as a mediator to solve problems and enhance behavioral adjustment. 15 Rather, SPS training uniquely addresses social incompetence, or a person's cognitive inability to apply SPS skills and to resolve problems systematically. In other words, SPS teaches children how to think rather than what to think, so that they eventually and ideally adopt appropriate and healthful social solutions on their own to solve idiosyncratic interpersonal and intrapersonal problems.…”