Academic and behavioral characteristics of children that passed by a training for developing social skills

• Grant number: 13/00376-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2013
• End date: February 28, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Luciana Carla dos Santos Elias
• Grantee: Márcia Viana Amaral
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

When joining a new group, the child needs to learn new social skills and/or adapt to the existing ones. The term Social Skills (SS) applies to different classes of social behavior repertoire of an individual and should cooperate to solve immediate problems and reduce the occurrence of future problems. Among the different SS, this study will highlight the Interpersonal Problem Solving Skills (IPSS). Children with better performance in IPSS show up better adjusted to life situations in relation to the ones which present difficulties in these skills, constituting, therefore, a protective factor and psychosocial adaptation. The IPSS is learned, amenable to intervention, and presents a preventive character. Thus, this study aims to determine the IPSS, behavior problems, and academic performance in children before and after a workout specific to the development of TSI. Participating in the project 54 children (27 of the intervention group and 27 of the control group) of both sexes, aged 10 to 11 years, enrolled in the 5th grade of elementary school belonging to the municipal teaching network Cravinhos and their teachers. The children were evaluated in relation to the IPSS, behavioral characteristics, and academic performance before and after the intervention and 5 months after the intervention. The instruments used to collect data will be Children's Interpersonal Problem Solving (CHIPS), Academic Performance Test and Social Skills Rating System (SRSS-BR), questionnaire for teachers. Data analysis will be performed using the computer program SPSS Statistics. There will also be qualitative analyzes of children's responses at different evaluation moments. (AU)