Social skills training for young adolescents

Abstract

A systematic assertiveness training program was developed for adolescents, based on Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory. The program, which focused on peer interactions and social responsibility, consisted of six 40-minute semi-weekly sessions and was presented to a class of 22 sixth-grade social studies students in a middle school. Cognitive acquisition of the information was measured with multiple-choice tests administered immediately after training and at a 6-month follow-up. Trained students performed significantly better than a control group on the posttest (p less than .01) and on the 6-month follow-up (p less than .02), demonstrating that young adolescents can acquire and retain the symbolic information that forms a basis for assertive behavior.