The effectiveness of social skills training with adolescents: from less to more

This article offers the results of a meta-analytic review of the effectiveness of social skills training in an analog adolescent population. Seventeen papers published between 1980 and 2001, which met the selection criteria, were identified leading to a total of 22 independent studies. The effect size index used was the standardized mean difference in the pos-test between the treated and control groups. The results showed an average overall effectiveness for these interventions (d+= 0.62), which increased during the follow-up (d+= 1.25). The mean effect sizes were analyzed according to the type of outcome measure and the type of recording instrument used. The influence of different moderator variables (of treatment, subject, context, and methodological and extrinsic ones) on the results is also examined. Finally, the theoretical and clinical implications of the results are discussed.