Social skills training for young adolescents: symbolic and behavioral components

The assertiveness program developed by Wise, Bundy, Bundy, and Wise (1991), which focused on the unique problems and peer interactions of young adolescents, was expanded to a 12-week program and presented to a group of 28 sixth graders. Cognitive acquisition and retention of the symbolic information was measured with a pretest, posttest, and follow-up administration of the multiple-choice tests that were designed and used in the prior study. Verbal content of assertive behavior was measured in a pretest and posttest role-play situation. When trained students were compared to a control group on the symbolic measures, a significant effect for treatment (p < or = .000); a significant effect for measures (p < or = .000); and a significant Treatment x Measure interaction (p < or = .000) were found. A comparison of means showed a significant difference between pretest vs. posttest and follow-up (p < or = .000). However, no difference between posttest and follow-up was found (p < .351). Unlike the earlier study, in which girls benefited more from training than did boys, no treatment by gender interaction was found for the cognitive measure (p < .691). Boys and girls benefited similarly in terms of the cognitive acquisition of assertiveness information from this program. However, the results did not show that these students were able to demonstrate assertiveness on the behavioral level. Results are discussed in terms of the difference between simply having stored symbolic information regarding assertive responses and recognizing contexts in which accessing the information would be appropriate. Suggestions for designing programs aimed at bringing about changes in adolescents' assertive behavior that will generalize to their lives beyond the training context are also offered.