Purpose: Social skills difficulties among children on the autism spectrum can impede social, emotional, and academic development, especially with increasing age and social demands. This pilot study examined the efficacy of a 5-week skill-building program for children on the autism spectrum. Although effective social skills programs are available…

Background: One of the objectives of the new Spanish Education Act is for students to develop a series of social skills, largely derived from the ability variables of assertiveness and empathy. Sport Education is an instructional model that is deemed useful in the development of personal and social responsibility and social values. It requires…

The national strategies of drug abuse prevention across Europe have come to recognise that the drug abuse problem presents a complex set of issues of which there is no simple solution. There is a considerable increase in investment in prevention, treatment and harm-reduction activities and increased focus on supply reduction. School settings are…

Sibling conflict can rise to the level of a clinical problem. In Phase 1 a lengthy behavioral role-play analog sampling child reactions to normal sibling conflicts was successfully shortened. In Phase 2 normal children who lacked sibling conflict resolution skills were randomly assigned to a Training or Measurement Only condition. Training…

This study evaluates the efficacy of Keepin' It Safe, a theory-based, gender-specific, CD-ROM-mediated HIV prevention program for urban, early adolescent girls. Intervention effects were examined in a randomized, pretest-posttest wait-list control-group design. Changes in HIV/AIDS knowledge, protective attitudes, and skills for reducing HIV…

Patterns of drug use among teenagers indicate they are highly influenced by peers. To examine the influence of Say It Straight, an alcohol/drug abuse prevention program aimed at teaching adolescents to deal with peer pressure, sixth, seventh and eighth graders (N=509) created and role played situations in which they wanted to say "no" to…

Researchers and practitioners have generally concentrated on the following areas of social competence: (1) social assertion; (2) interviewing skills; and (3) conversational ability. Reviews issues of methodology. Studies are reviewed and recommendations for future research are made. (Author/BJV)