Effect of cognitive social skills training on positive relationships with others and adjustment of students

Psychologists and behavioral science experts have always tried to increase the level of adjustment of individuals in different age groups by various developing educational programs. Therefore, the review of the results of studies in the field of social cognition illustrates that a significant part of the cognitive social maltreatment of adolescents is related to the deficiency of their skill treasury. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of cognitive social skills training in positive relationships with others and adjustment of adolescents.

In this quesi-experimental research with pretest-posttest nonequivalent-group design with two month follow-up, a population of 148 female students of the 8th grade, 58 students were selected by convenience sampling method and then divided into two groups. All the participants in the two groups responded to the scale of the positive relationship with others and Student Adjustment before and after the experiment. The students of the experimental group received cognitive social skills training for 10 weeks, (2 hours per week). Finally, the obtained results were analyzed by univariate and multivariate covariance analysis using SPSS software.

The results of the multivariate covariance analysis for determining the effect of the group on student's adjustment was significant in the post-test and follow up (P<0.05). As well as the results of univariate covariance analysis to determine the effect of the group on the level of positive relationships with others in the post-test and follow up was statistically significant (P<0.05). Also, the findings indicated that the intervention effect on the variables in the follow up stage was invariant.

The results of this study indicated that the cognitive social skills training program was experimentally effective in cognitive restructuring, cognitive impairment and causal bias, as well as the enhancement of interpersonal skills in enhancing the skills of the students.