Training adolescents of low intelligence in social and emotional problem-solving skills
Creators: name: Christoph, Doris
Publisher: name: University of Calgary
Year: 1978
Subjects: subject: LC 4602 C57 1978 Microfiche
subject: Mentally handicapped children - Education
subject: Emotional problems of children
subject: Problem solving in children

description: Bibliography: p. 112-117.
description: The purpose of this study was to investigate the interrelationships between measures of social and emotional problem-solving ability, intelligence, and social and emotional adjustment in a sample of low IQ adolescents. An additional purpose was to examine the effects of a training program designed to teach social and emotional problem-solving skills on the ability of adolescents to solve hypothetical conflict situations. The effects of this training program in problem-solving on the adolescents' social and emotional adjustment were also investigated. Subjects were 56 adolescent volunteers drawn from a group of 67 students attending a local Alternative School. The IQ of this test sample ranged from 44 to 124, with an average of 84.77 IQ points. Of the 30 students who were randomly assigned to the treatment program, 27 completed post-testing. Of the 26 students who were randomly assigned to the no-treatment control group, 16 completed post-testing. The treatment and control subjects were administered the (1) Means-Ends-Problem-Solving Procedures (MEPS); the (2) British Social Adjustment Guides (BSAG); and the (3) Walker Problem Behavior Identification Checklist (WPBIC). Post-test changes on these measures were assessed following the seven-week administration period of the treatment and control programs. Examinations of the data indicated significant correlations between measures of social and emotional problem-solving skills (ranging from .30 to .95; .E.. ranging from &lt;.025 to &lt;.001). These results confirm the hypothesis that adolescents deficient in social problem-solving ability will show a corresponding degree of deficiency in emotional problem-solving. Overall measures of problem-solving ability were not significantly related to measures of personal adjustment. Thus, the prediction that deficits in problem-solving ability are accompanied by deficits in overall adjustment was not confirmed. Correlations between overall measures of problem-solving ability and WISC IQ scores were not significant indicating, as predicted, that IQ is unrelated to social and emotional problem-solving ability. On pre- to post-test measures, treatment subjects showed significant overall improvement (I (6, 21) = 6.99; E. &lt;.001), and specific improvements on all measures of problem-solving ability but not on measures of personal adjustment. Similarly, treatment and control subjects differed significantly on overall post-test measures (F(6, 36) = 5.81; .E_ &lt;.001), and specific group differences were significant on all measures of problem-solving but not on measures of personal adjustment. Thus it appears that treatment subjects benefitted considerably from the training program with respect to overall problem-solving ability but not with respect to personal adjustment. These results suggest that adolescents of low intelligence can be taught appropriate problem-solving skills for dealing with everyday conflict situations. However, in view of the subjective assessment patterns shown by the teachers in this study, the results may not warrant the interpretation that the acquisition of such skills does not lead to improvement in personal adjustment.