Teaching Reciprocal Social Skills to Parents and Their Delinquent Adolescents

Abstract

A behavioral group training program in which seven social skills and one problem-solving skill were taught to families of court-adjudicated youths was evaluated. The families were divided into two groups: an experimental group and a comparison group. Youths in both groups and parents in the experimental families received training in social skills. After the training of each skill to a mastery criterion, the parents and adolescents in the experimental group only were taught to use their newly acquired skills while engaging in parent-adolescent dyadic interactions. A multiple-baseline across skills design was used to assess the immediate effects of the training procedures. The data showed overall improvements occurring only after training in each of the trained skill areas for the parents and youths participating in the experimental group and for the youths in the comparison group. A 10-month follow-up showed maintenance of post-training skill levels by family members in the experimental group. Social validation measures for parent-adolescent interactions showed that judges' ratings of parent-adolescent interactions and relationships were higher for the experimental group than for the comparison group, Social-skill training far parents and their adolescents appears to be successful with regard to teaching social skills, maintaining social skills Usage over time, and may, in fact, aid in improving family interactions and relationships.

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