Enhancing Friendship-Making Ability of Peer Rejected Adolescents through Social Skills Training

Abstract

The study assesses the effectiveness of social skills training (SST) in enhancing friendship-making ability of peer-rejected adolescents in Ibadan, Nigeria. A 2x2 pretest-posttest, control group true experimental design was utilized. Eighty four (84) peer-rejected students from two secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo state whose ages ranged from 11 to 17 years with a mean of 13 were randomly assigned to the treatment and control groups. The treatment group was exposed to eight-week training in SST while participants in the control group received placebo training. The participants responded to a validated Peer Attachment Inventory at both pre and post intervention sessions. The results indicated that the intervention group performed significantly better than the control group and also social skills training predicted friendship making ability among the female and the male participants. The researcher recommends social skills training to be introduced in the schools programme.

Keywords: Social skills, social skills training, friendship-making, peer-rejected adolescents.