Social Skills Groups
The group process, especially smaller groups, is particularly useful in facilitating the development of social skills, and decision making skills to help adolescents be more successful in their lives (Trotzer, 2006). According to Gladding (2012), groups of all kinds can be helpful to adolescents in making a successful transition from childhood to adulthood. They are valuable because they allow members to experience a sense of belonging, share common problems, to find and provide support, to facilitate new learning, to help ease internal and external pressures, and to offer hope and models for change (p.266). Peer relationships provide an important context for social learning and support individual development. These relationships are strongly related to social, emotional, and cognitive functioning during adolescence (Parker et al. 2006). Social interaction, in a group setting, during adolescence in particular have distinctive impact on long-term patterns of both intra-and interpersonal functioning (Hartup, 1983; Piaget, 1954; Savin-Williams and Berndt, 1990; Sullivan, 1953).
The importance of pro social skills training for adolescents in a group setting is well defined in the literature (Hemphill & Littlefield, 2001, Fisher, Masia-Warner, & Klein, 2004, Cartwright-Hatton, Techernitz & Gomersall, 2005, Flanagan, Allen & Henry, 2010, Ellis, 2002). McGinnis (2012), along with Goldstein and McGinnis (1997), have developed a prosocial skills curriculum, facilitated in a group setting, using a cognitive-behavioral model. The curriculum includes teaching skills that address the following topics: dealing with feelings, alternatives to aggression, dealing with stress, and planning skills (McGinnis, 2012). A meta-analytic study conducted by Spence (2003), suggest that social skills training interventions that combine behavioral modeling with instruction in social perception skills, self-regulation techniques, and social problem skills produce the most positive treatment effects. These elements should be included in school social skills training programs to maximize efficacy (Harrell, Mercer, & DeRosier, 2008).