Guide to Effective Programs
for Children and Youth

Social Problem-Solving (SPS)

OVERVIEW

The Social Problem-Solving (SPS) program was designed to give children in elementary school with deficits in social problem-solving the skills necessary to succeed in daily social interactions. The SPS program specifically seeks to improve conflict resolution skills by focusing on three areas of development: problem identification, alternative solution generation, and anticipation of consequences. In the study outlined below, three schools were randomly assigned. Analyses indicate that the Social Problem-Solving program is effective in increasing the problem-solving skills of alternative solution generation and consequential thinking. Positive impacts were found for both the full package group and the video-only group, compared with the control group. Mixed results were found with respect to teacher-rated behavioral variable measures such as peer sociability and overall competence.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Children in 2^nd and 3^rd grades in suburban, lower middle class, primarily white schools

The SPS program is designed to provide children with skills for effective conflict resolution as well as social problem coping. The program has three main components to address these goals: problem identification, alternative solution generation, and anticipation of consequences. Within these three components, children are taught problem-solving steps intended for daily use. These steps consist of understanding the problem, deciding on a positive outcome, thinking before acting, generating multiple solutions, understanding consequences of each potential solution, and implementing an appropriate solution. The program consists of twice weekly 30-40 minute sessions for a total of 9 weeks. Each session includes a variety of interactive activities such as class discussion, video instruction, role playing, and learning games.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Gesten, E. L., Rains, M. H., Rapkin, B. D., Weissberg, R. P., Flores de Apocada, R., Cowen, E. L., & Bowen, R. (1982). Training children in social problem-solving competencies: A first and second look. American Journal of Community Psychology, 10, 95-115.

Evaluated population: 201 children in second and third grades. All subjects were from lower middle class economic backgrounds and mostly white suburban areas.

Approach: 3 schools were randomly assigned to one of three conditions, full-package curriculum (N=65), videotape-only curriculum (N=68), and control (N=68). The full-package curriculum condition involved 17 sessions of 30 to 40 minutes each which included interactive activities, videos, and discussions. The videotape-only condition involved 5 sessions which lasted 40 minutes each. Each session contained a short overview, video lesson, and class discussion. Control groups received no treatment, but it is noted that discussions about conflicts and problem-solving were part of daily classroom activities. At 9 weeks, children were assessed on measures of problem-solving abilities and behavioral adjustment. At a one-year follow-up, 138 of the original study’s 201 children were again assessed on these measures.

Results: Students in the full-package condition generated more alternative solutions and had improved consequential thinking when compared with students in both the video-only and control conditions. At 9 weeks, students in the control group outperformed students in experimental conditions on teacher-rated measures of shyness-anxiousness, total problems, peer sociability, rule following, frustration tolerance, and total competence. The researchers provide some explanation of these results and attribute it partly to the teachers’ knowledge of assigned conditions. This problem is corrected for in the second follow-up study by blinding the teachers to the students’ program involvement in the previous year. The follow-up study randomly selected 138 students for follow-up assessments 12 months later. This follow-up found that the full-package group performed higher than the video-only and control conditions on measures of consequential thinking. Treatment groups performed better than the control group on 7 out of 10 teacher-rated student behaviors. Additionally, the authors note that the “findings highlight the potential benefits of the preventative model as well as the need for both short- and longer-term evaluations. More study is required to clarify the nature of possible linkage(s) between problem-solving and adjustment in latency-aged children.” The small number of schools involved is a limitation.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References

Weissberg, R. P., Gesten, E. L., Rapkin, B. D., Cowen, E. L., Davidson, E., Flores de Apocada, R., & McKim, B. J. (1981). Evaluation of a social-problem-solving training program for suburban and inner-city third-grade children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 49(2), 251-261.

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: grades 2 and 3 / Program age ranges in the Guide: mid-childhood

Program components: school based

Measured outcomes: social and emotional health and development; life skills; behavioral problems