Effectiveness of peer-mediated intervention on decreasing symptoms of behavioral disorders and increasing social skills in preschool children

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Peer Mediated Intervention on reducing the symptoms of behavioral disorders and increasing social skills in preschool children in District 3 of Tehran in the 97-98 academic year.

The study was conducted by quasi-experimental method with pre-test, post-test, control group and two-month follow-up and the statistical population of 132 male and female preschool students in Tehran's 3rd district in the 97-98 academic year. After available sampling and determining the sample size of 40 people, the Social Skills Rating Scale-teacher form (Gersham and Elliott, 1990) was completed by educators for children and those who had the required score to participate in the study were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups by gender (10 boys and 10 girls in each group). The children in the experimental group participated in the Peer Mediated Intervention plan for 12 weeks and 12 sessions in 20 minutes.

The results of the covariance analyzes showed a significant decrease in the symptoms of behavioral disorders and a significant increase in social skills of children in the experimental group compared to the control group in the post-test and follow-up phase.

Since Peer-Mediated Intervention leads to the reinforcement of positive behaviors by peer groups and learning social skills through the formation of positive interpersonal interaction and reinforcement by peers and social learning, this plan can be used as a effective and useful method for children who are at risk of behavioral problems as well as preventing the occurrence of more serious problems in older years.