Conflict Resolution/Interpersonal Skills

Promoting conflict resolution skills and general social competence has long been a goal of prevention programs (Catalano and Hawkins, 1996; Oden and Asher, 1977; Spivak, Platt and Shure, 1976). These programs have shown effectiveness as a primary means of preventing psychosocial problems such as aggression, drug use, delinquency, and academic failure (Bierman, Greenberg, and Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 1996; Catalano et al., 1998; Durlak, 1983; Johnson and Johnson, 1996; Lochman and Wells, 1996). Further, across the continuum of youth services, evidence shows that teaching cognitive-, social-, and emotional competencies such as conflict resolution strategies and promoting the skills involved in the initiation and maintenance of positive relationships can optimize youth development (Botvin, et al., 1998; Caplan et al., 1992; Coie and Krehbiel, 1984; Lochman, 1992; Shure and Spivak, 1988).

Social competence programs are typically designed with the overall goals of changing the mental processes and interpersonal behavioral strategies that lead young people to engage in problem behaviors including violence, delinquency, risky sexual activity, and drug use. Specific skills targeted include promoting anger management and conflict resolution to stem aggression and violence and teaching social resistance training to stem substance use and risky sexual behaviors. While the specific program objectives often are focused on reducing problem behaviors they also have the added benefits of promoting caring and cooperative behavior, teaching prosocial life skills, and promoting positive climates for learning in the school and living in the home.

These programs can directly target the individual or involve whole environment change and have been successfully implemented in many contexts including the home, school, juvenile facilities, and the community. Often the most successful programs link multiple contexts and involve an entire facility or community, are integrated into institutional management practices and the educational curriculum, and are linked to family and community mediation initiatives (LeBoeuf and Delany-Shabazz, 1997). Whole institutional programs with proven efficacy in creating positive change in creating contexts where young people engage in positive problem solving and resolve conflicts peaceably include Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways and Peace Works.

SOCIAL SKILLS TRAINING
Social skills training programs encompass a wide array of competencies targeted to assist young people in initiating and maintaining positive affiliations. Types of social skills typically targeted include problem solving, decision-making and communication skills, as well as social resistance skills. These multi-purpose skills are viewed as useful to youth particularly for times when they have to make decisions about engaging in risky behaviors.

Social resistance training, while sometimes used to prevent risky sexual behaviors, typically focuses on teaching social decision-making and problem solving skills regarding the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. Many substance use prevention experts agree that competencies such as resistance skills are essential protective factors for the reduction of substance use in adolescence (Dusenbury and Falco, 1995). This type of training is aimed at helping youth identify social persuasion techniques and respond more effectively to social influences to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol or use other drugs. Specifically, youngsters learn and practice how to turn persuasion tactics around for prosocial aims.

Key features of empirically supported approaches to substance use prevention include interactive exercises that allow the modeling and rehearsal of appropriate refusal skills (Botvin, et al., 1998). Some well-tested programs with proven effectiveness include Life Skills Training, Multi-Modal Substance Abuse Prevention, and Say It Straight.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Core goals of conflict resolution programs are the promotion of cognitive-, social, and emotional competence; reduction of coercive interactions; minimizing rejection by prosocial peers and decreasing acceptance by deviant peers. The overall objective is to prevent the onset of conduct problems, juvenile delinquency, and adult criminality and promote positive development.

Teaching conflict resolution and problem solving skills has been shown to be effective in reducing overall aggression and violent behavior (Lochman and Wells, 1996). Teaching conflict resolution has been a major component of a variety of violence reduction programs across the continuum of care (Tolan and Guerra, 1994; Lipsey and Wilson, 1997). It has been demonstrated that conflict resolution education can reduce juvenile violence in schools, juvenile facilities, and communities while providing lifelong decision-making skills (LeBoeuf and Delany-Shabazz, 1997).

Delinquency and violence often are considered symptoms of a juvenile’s inability to deal constructively with conflict (LeBoeuf and Delany-Shabazz, 1997). Aggressive responses to ambiguous social interactions may stem from youths’ biased beliefs and competence deficits. Some of these beliefs include pro-violence attitudes and the view that violence is a normal and acceptable way to solve problems (Dishion, Patterson, Stoolmiller, and Skinner, 1991). These young people have inadequate coping skills and decision-making processes and often are unable to seek mutually acceptable solutions to interpersonal dilemmas (Ferrer-Wreder, et al., 2002; LeBoeuf and Delany-Shabazz, 1997). Further they tend to attribute hostile intent to others in ambiguous social situations (Beck, 1999; Lahey, Waldman, and McBurnett, 1999; Pettit, 1997). Exemplary programs that directly target young people who are at-risk for aggression include FAST Track, Academic Tutoring and Social Skills program, and the Social Relations Program.

Many of these biased attitudes and skill deficits are modeled and practiced in early home environments and further reinforced in primary school settings (Ferrer-Wreder, et al., 2003; Patterson, 1982). This cycle of coercive behaviors can lead to rejection by prosocial peers, the risk of identification and enduring affilitation with antisocial peers, and the escalation of problem behaviors (Patterson, 1982). Many social competence programs that focus on the family act to interrupt the coercive cycle. Primary goals of these programs focus on supporting parents in clearly communicating behavioral expectations and consequences, adequately supervising children, and consistently enforcing limits (Patterson, Reid, and Dishion, 1992; Ferrer-Wreder, et al., 2003; Williams and Borduin, 1997). Research indicates that teaching parents positive conflict resolution, that is without coercive interchanges, creates a protective family context that becomes a resource for the young person to draw on throughout life (Dishion, Patterson, Stoolmiller, and Skinner, 1981). For exemplary programs designed to prevent violence and aggression by focusing on the family see Multisystemic Therapy, Functional Family Therapy and Raising a Thinking Child: I Can Problem Solve for Families.

References

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