Diseño, implementación y evaluación de efectividad de un programa de entrenamiento en habilidades sociales maca (empatía, relaciones interpersonales y comunicación asertiva) en jóvenes escolarizados en el marco de la post pandemia

Abstract

The following project consists of the design, implementation, and evaluation of the effectiveness of a social skills training program focused on middle school teenagers which centers around three main aspects: Empathy, Interpersonal Relationships and Assertive Communication, aiming to reduce problematic student behavior. Throughout 11 guided sessions, 14 students from 6th and 7th grade, aged 12 through 14 (M = 12.86), of the Enrique Olaya Herrera Public School in Bogotá, Colombia, were divided into two equally sized groups (n = 7 subjects), one of them being a Control Group and the other the Experimental Group. On a weekly basis, 10 work sessions were conducted with the students at their school and 1 final training session focused on parenting guidelines and social skills for parents.To evaluate the learning process of social skills among subjects, a pre-test and post test measurement was made using the Skills for Life Test (Díaz et al. 2013). Results indicate a statistically significant difference between the Control Group and Experimental Group along the Empathy skill. However, the Interpersonal Relationships and Assertive Communication skills did not present a noticeable variation among the two groups. In terms of observation reports of the Experimental Group made by the school, there was a decrease of negative reviews in almost 87% of subjects while 42.85% of subjects of the Control Group showed an increase. This study facilitated a closer view of child cognitive development by understanding how it is heavily biased by cultural and social behaviors that generate response patterns that allows them to cope with the tough environment they live in.