A Meta-analysis on the Effectiveness of Social-Emotional Skills Training in Reduction of Addiction Tendency

Substance abuse in adolescence and adulthood is a major public health concern, which is associated with a variety of psychiatric disorders. A wealth of studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of teaching prevention methods (emotional-social skills) in reducing addiction and addictibility. The aim of this study was to draw a general conclusion on the effectiveness of emotional-social skills training in the reduction of addictibility. To achieve the objectives of this meta-analysis, the quantitative results of 25 selected papers, which were obtained according to the exit and entry criteria and keywords, were used. A total of 47 effect sizes were obtained and were analyzed via CMA2 software. According to the investigation of the heterogeneity, the results of the results, the random effects model was found appropriate where the mixed effect size of training impact on reducing addiction was obtained large (-0.75) based on Cohen criterion. The results also showed that the effect size of skills training impact on addiction potential is greater than that addictibility and confessions to addiction. In addition, comparison studies were more than correlation studies. Based on the magnitude of the obtained effect sizes, it can be concluded that emotional-social skills training has a high effect on the reduction of addictibility. Therefore, the promotion of emotional and social skills can be effective in preventing people's tendency to drug abuse.