The Impact of Family / School-Based Problem Solving Training on Problem-Solving Styles of Elementary Students

Problem solving is one of the structured cognitive programs that provides a range of efficient responses to deal with the problematic situations of life. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of family / school-based problem solving training on problem-solving styles of elementary students. The design of this study was experimental and pre-test-post-test-follow-up with the control group. A sample of 120 students were selected using random sampling method and were randomly assigned to experimental (60 subjects) and control (60 subjects). After educating 10 two-hour sessions for parents and teachers, the experimental group received a family/school oriented problem-solving program for three months. A short version of the social problem solving (D’Zurilla, Nezu & Maydeu-Olivares, 2004) was used to collect data in three forms of students, parents, and teachers. According to the opinions of the three groups of students (participants), parents, and teachers, the results showed that in the experimental group there was a significant difference between the scores of pretest and posttest scores on the subscales of problem solving, but there wasn't a significant difference between the scores of posttest and follow-up on the subscales of problem solving (P ≤ 0.05) Family/school problem-solving training is effective on student problem solving styles, so using this method as a preventive program for parents and teachers in adopting an effective problem-solving style for students, is important.