The Influence of Social Problem-solving Training in School

School-based interpersonal problem-solving (IPS) training has been widely advanced as a potentially valuable strategy for the primary prevention of adjustment problems among elementary school children. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the effects of IPS training in two schools on 118 fourth-grade children's ability to cope with stressful interpersonal situations, and on their overall behavioral adjustment, as exhibited at home. This study is one of the first IPS evaluations conducted independently of those who designed or implemented the intervention. This is the first study, furthermore, to examine the generalization of schooltrained skills to, and their effects on, behavior in settings outside of school. The Child Interpersonal Problem Solving Rating Scale is offered here as a general measure of uniquely IPS behavior. Subjects exposed to IPS training failed to show significantly more improved adjustment or problem-solving behavior at home than did control subjects. Correlations between IPS and adjustment at home and across school boundaries, however, reveal some important sex differences as well as other complexities. On the positive side, variables that have received little previous attention, such as passive means generation, feelings recognition, the types of consequential thinking (prosocial versus antisocial), variants of alternative solutions, and the face-valid IPS self report, were more strongly related to home behavior than alternative solution or active means generation. However, there appear to be several unexpectedly negative relationships as well. It is concluded that IPS theory will require considerably greater specificity and refinement before consistent programmatic achievements can be attained.