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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 84 (2013) 1166 – 1170

3rd World Conference on Psychology, Counselling and Guidance (WCPCG-2012)

The effect of social skills training on aggression of mild mentally

retarded children
Seyedeh Zahra Alavi a,*, Azar Pakdaman Savoji b , forogh Amin c
a
Department of Guidance and Counseling, Sosangerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sosangerd, Iran
b
Department of Educational Psychology, Payame Noor University,I,R of Iran
c
Department of English Language,Sosangerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sosangerd, Iran

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of social skills training on aggression of mild mentally retarded children at
Ahvaz city. The sample was comprised of 40 boys mentally retarded students eight to ten years old (20 experimental group, 20
control group), who were selected and assigned by random sampling. The Arnold H. Buss and Mark Perry aggression
questionnaire was first executed on both groups as a pre-test, then the experimental group were trained for ten sessions of two
hours under social skills, and the performance of the two groups were compared in the post-test. The results showed the positive
effect of social skills training on decreasing aggression of mentally retarded children.

© 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

© 2013 Published
Selection by Elsevier
and peer-review Ltd. Selection
under and peer
responsibility review
of Prof. Dr.under the responsibility
Huseyin Uzunboylu of Dr. Melehat
& Dr. MukaddesHalat
Demirok, Near East University, Cyprus
Keywords: social skills, aggression, mentally retarded children

1. Introduction

Study of special children has drawn more attention of psychologist in resent years. The main focus of researches
is actually investigating the differences between them and normal children. Among special children mentally
retarded children, because of complexity of their behaviour, are of particular attention in psychological studies
(Hallahan, Kauffman, 2002). There are many different definitions for mental retardation but the one presented by
American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) is , mental retardation is a level of general intelligence
function which is considerably lower than average level and causes deficiencies in the child's adaptive behaviour
and, it manifests itself in the process of development (Shea, 2006). The criteria used by most of the experts to
classify mentally retarded children is severity of their problems (Luckasson, Reeve, 2001). Most of people who are
recognized as mentally retarded are classified as mild retarded. These children faced many mental and behavioural
problems including inability in learning, personality problems, and deficiency in adaptive behaviour. They may not
be able to control their behaviour (Shea, 2006).

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +989163134095.

E-mail: Alavizahra87@yahoo.com

1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Huseyin Uzunboylu & Dr. Mukaddes Demirok, Near East University, Cyprus
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.06.720
 Seyedeh Zahra Alavi et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 84 (2013) 1166 – 1170 1167

Aggression, is one of the problems of mentally retarded children. Aggressive behaviour manifests itself as a
violent behaviour against others. It means intentionally annoying others (Sadock & Sadock, 2007). Aggression has
many possible negative consequences including fear, stimulation, mutual aggression, losing control, guilt feeling,
loneliness, and problems in mental health as well as social life (Asher et. al, 1990). Community care providers find
it difficult to manage such individuals because they often exhibit low frequency but high intensity aggressive
behaviours targeted at staff and peers (Singh et. al, 2002).
Several researches mentioned the positive relationship between social skills deficit and behavioural problems
(Frey, 2005). Aggressive behaviours can be managed in a number of ways, like psychotropic medication, cognitive-
behavioural intervention or their combination (Singh et al, 2002). It seems that social skills training can be useful for
dealing with maladaptive behaviour like aggression.

Based on previous research social behaviour influence all aspects of people's life, particularly their mental health,
adaptation, and happiness in future. The child's ability in adapting himself with others and doing acceptable social
activities determine his level of popularity among peers, teachers, parents and other adults. The level of a person's
ability in social skills directly relates to his social growth and is demonstrated in his socially acceptable behaviour
(McClelland, Morrison, 2003). The concept of social skills has been variously defined by the psychologists.
Schneider et al., (1985) define social skills as an instrument for connecting a person to the environment. They
believe that this instrument is used for initiating and continuing a desirable relationship which is an important aspect
of mental health. Ilknur and Bulbin (2007) define desirable social skills as the acceptable social pattern of behavior
which helps children gain social reinforcement and acceptance. Social skills also help them avoid annoying
situations, set positive feedback from the social environment, and improve interpersonal relations.
Social skills training for people with intellectual disabilities have received a great attention over the last several
decades ( . Lovett and Harris (1987, cited in Kuhn et al, 2001) had shown
that social skill deficits are commonly observed among the population of individuals diagnosed with mental
retardation. According to Matson and Boisjoli theory (2008), lack of social skills is a barrier for independent life and
it is related to mental retardation. Doffenbacher et al., (1987) have shown that social skill training programs have a
positive effect on the reduction of anger and its negative manifestations, and control of excitement.
Considering the importance of social skills in mentally
investigating the effects of social skill training on the aggression of these children. It is supposed that social skills
training has a positive effect on reduction of aggression in mentally retarded children.

2. Method

This research is a kind of quasi-experiment researches. The design was pre-test, post-test with control group. The
participants include 40 eight to ten years old male students with mild mental retardation who were studied at
exceptional children school in Ahvaz city. Students were selected by convenient sampling method and randomly
assigned in experimental and control groups. Homogeneity of the samples in experimental and control groups was
determined based on the student s ages and IQ scores.

1.1. Procedure

Firstly, students were given Arnold H. Buss and Mark Perry's aggression questionnaire as the pre-test. Secondly,
those students who got higher scores were selected as the subjects of the research and randomly divided into the
experimental and control groups. Thirdly, students in the experimental group took part in ten sessions of social skills
training. Each session lasted 2 hours. The program of training is illustrated at table 1.
1168 Seyedeh Zahra Alavi et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 84 (2013) 1166 – 1170

Table 1. The program of life skills training

Session Skill Description

1 Self-awareness Physical and mental self-awareness
2 Empathy Understanding others feeling
3 Self- Recognition of suitable situation for self-assertion
assertiveness
4 Anger Emotional self-awareness and different ways and stages of
management anger management
5 Effective How to make friendly relations with others
relationship
6 listening Listening and understanding others when they are talking
7 Asking Types of questions and the role of question in having effective
questions relations
8 Making friends The factors which should be noticed in making friends
9 Social Importance of cooperation and take responsibility and different
cooperation types of social cooperation
10 Review Review all skills practiced in the previous session

Social skill training program. We used the program of social skills training presented by Guglielmo and Tryon
(2001). Applying this program, we divided the skills in to three main groups; personal skills (self-awareness, self-
assertion, and anger management), interpersonal skills (effective relationship, listening, making friends, and
empathy), and environment-related skills (cooperation and responsibility). It should be noted that before beginning
the training program, a meeting was held with the aim of making students familiar with the concepts of social skills
as well as the purpose and the necessity of the program.
At the beginning of each session, applying brain storming method, the researcher asked students some questions
and makes them familiar with the subject. Then, we thought students how to use the specific social skill of that
session. After that, it was the students' turn to practice using that skill. In order to practice more, at the end of each
session, students were given some extra assignments. They had to do the assignments and report its result in the next
session.

1.2. Instrument

Arnold.H.Buss and Mark Perry's aggression questionnaire. Aggression questionnaire that was prepared by
Arnold.H.Buss (1992) has been extensively used by the researchers. The questionnaire was derived from a repertoire
of 52questions and most of its questions were selected from hostility questionnaire through factor analysis method.
This questionnaire includes 29 items in 5-Likert scale and has 4 sub-scales as: physical aggression, verbal
aggression, anger, and hostility.
-
scale were 0.85, 0.72, 0.83 and 0.77 respectively. In the other hand, scores of the subscales showed a significant
correlation, therefore the fact that the relation among physical, verbal, and hostility sub-scales depends on their
correlation with the anger, proves the formal validity of the questionnaire. Moreover, scores obtain from the four
aggression sub-scale revealed a correlation with competition and decisiveness, and being impulsive. The correlation
between this questionnaire and the observation of aggression, shyness, and sociability by peers is an evidence for
construct validity. The questionnaire was scored from 1 to 5 based on Likert's scale.
 Seyedeh Zahra Alavi et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 84 (2013) 1166 – 1170 1169

3. Results

Descriptive statistics and Independent-sample t-test were applied in order to analyze data, and the following
results were gained:

Table 2. Mean scores and standard deviations for experimental and control groups at pre-test and post-test

Group Pre-test Post-test

M SD M SD
experimental 94.85 8.72 69.70 7.49
control 101.30 7.54 96.30 6.94

To verify the hypothesis, the differentiation between pre-test and post-test scores was calculated. In addition
Independent-sample t- test was carried out to compare the means of the control and experimental groups. The results
revealed that, considering t-value (t=14.49) and df =38 with the significant level of P=0.0001, there was a significant
difference between the experimental and control groups. Therefore, it can be concluded that social skill training
reduced students' aggression in experimental groups.

4. Discussion

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of social skill training on reduction of
aggression of mentally retarded students. Results of the study showed that social skill training reduced the
aggression in the experimental group in comparison to the control group. This study confirms findings of other
research carried out in many countries. Findings of different studies indicate that social skill training can reduce
social anxiety, delinquency common depression, anger, social disorder, maladjustment, negative behavior toward
peers, and many other emotional and behavioral problems (Coie , Terry, Lenox et al, 1998). For example,
Doffenbacher et al., (1987) found out that social skill training positively affected students' behavior including
reducing anger and its negative consequences, controlling excitement and feeling relieved. Result of this study are
consistent with Ilknur and Bulbin ,2007;Matson and Boisjoli ,2008; Singh et al., 2002; 3;
Gundersen et al., 2006; and Morgan et al., 1994. Morgan et al., (1994) who showed that social skills provide the
opportunity for initiating continuing positive mutual relationship with others. Nangle et al (2002) also mentions that
social skills training is based on assumption that negative behaviors including aggression are often the result of a
deficit in the skills needed for socially competent interaction with peers. Accurate social perception enables children
recognize when a social problem is prese
order to produce a successful social outcome (Spence, Donovan, Brechman, 1999).
In general, according to the findings of this study and many other similar ones prove the importance and the role
of the social skills in having desirable relation with peers, parents, teachers and the society on the whole. Lacks of
social skills in mentally retarded students indicate the necessity of including these skills in rehabilitation and training
programs. These students often have problem in making friends, additionally, their inability in reasoning brings
about problems in their social perception and most of the time this inability manifests itself in their social relations
and causes behavioral disorders. Therefore, teaching social skills, methods of making relation with friends, parents,
and teachers and ways of controlling anger and aggression to the mentally retarded students making aware of these
students' problems provide healthy condition for their growth.
1170 Seyedeh Zahra Alavi et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 84 (2013) 1166 – 1170

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