Pesquisas e Práticas Psicossociais
On-line version ISSN 1809-8908
Abstract
BATISTA, Saulo Valmor and MARTURANO, Edna Maria. Intervention to promote social skills and to reduce child behavior problems in a social group. Pesqui. prát. psicossociais [online]. 2015, vol.10, n.2, pp.313-326. ISSN 1809-8908.
The aim of the study was to investigate the potential of a program to improve social skills and to reduce behavior problems in children who regularly attend afterschool activities. The participants were 22 children with 6-9 years of age attending a community center maintained by a non-governmental organization. Two groups were formed by convenience: Intervention Group - GI (n = 12) and Comparison Group - GC (n = 10). To measure the effects of the intervention, the Social Skills Rating System was used. Before and after the intervention in GI, the children evaluated themselves and were evaluated by one of the monitors, with respect to their social skills and behavior problems. Then GC received the intervention and the two groups were assessed again. The results did not demonstrate the effects of the program. Some evidence of progress in social skills was found, not directly related to the intervention.
Keywords : Child behavior problems; Intervention; Non-governmental organization; Social skills.