Document Type : original article

Authors

1 Department of Clinical Psychology, Tehran University of Science & Technology, Tehran, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Managing Director of Institute for New Horizons of Transformation Clinical Psychology, Tehran, Iran.

3 General Psychology, University of Kharazmi, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Background
Social interaction is an inevitable technique and resource of children's mental development, and children learn how to interact with others. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of social skills training on aggression among preschool children in the kindergarten of Tehran, Iran.
Materials and Methods
The study was a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test and post-test were selected by simple random sampling to compare a group of experiments (n= 7) with control (n = 7) groups. In this study, the statistical population in Tehran kindergartens in 2017-18 consisted of all children aged 4 to 6 years.  The intervention was conducted 10 sessions in 60-minute after pre-test and then the results were evaluated in two stages of pre-test and post-test by Matson's Social Skills Questionnaire and finally, after one month of intervention, the data were collected. Data were analyzed by using SPSS software (version 22.0).
Results
According to the descriptive results, the study group consisted of 7 children aged 4 to 6 years, while the control group consisted of 7 children aged 4.7 to 5.5 years. The findings showed that the mean and SD of aggression and impulsive behaviors in the experimental group decreased in the post-test 26.71±6.47 and 170± 11, respectively (p < 0.05).
Conclusion
The study was conducted 10 sessions in 60-minute by Matson's Social Skills intervention for children aged 4 to 6 years. Therefore, this psychotherapeutic intervention reduced aggression and impulsive behaviors among kindergartens children.

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