Social competence training program with Portuguese adolescents - a quasi-experi...

• Author(s): Loureiro, Cândida Rosalinda Exposto da Costa ; Ferreira, Maria Manuela Frederico ; Santos, Maria Margarida Reis
• Date: 2013
• Origin: Repositório Científico da Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Coimbra
• Subject(s): social competence; adolescent; program
• Document Type: Conference Object
• Language: English

Description

The purpose of this study was to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a social competences training program 'Improve skills with others', in a sample of Portuguese adolescents who presented difficulties in their social competences, namely, self-control, assertiveness, empathy and cooperation, based on Gresham & Elliot (1990) social skills rating system. We carried out a quasi-experimental study with 52 students in the 12th grade of a high school (27 students were in the control group and 25 were in the experimental group). Evaluation was performed before and after intervention in both groups. The results of the experimental group show the mean ranks higher in the post-intervention, for all the competences, excepting the cooperation where there is a slight decrease in the ranks, but the difference was not significant. The social competences self-control and empathy are those with statistically significant differences in the mean ranks. The results obtained at the end of the program also show a significant difference in the experimental group compared with the control group, for the social competence self-control. With these intervention programs nurses can help people to relate better with others and with themselves and move towards demand for healthy behaviors.