The effects of social skills instruction and parental involvement on the aggressive behaviors of African American males.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of social skills instruction on identified acts of aggression. Five elementary-aged African American male students attending general education classes in an urban public school setting were taught social skills using modeling, role playing, corrective feedback, and differential reinforcement of alternative or incompatible behaviors. Parent training and parent notes were used for the maintenance and transfer of newly learned social skills. A multiple baseline design across students, combined with a withdrawal feature, was employed to assess the effectiveness of the social skills instruction. Data were collected in the classroom and cafeteria to assess generalization of the training to naturalistic settings. Results indicate the social skills instructional package to be functionally related to a decrease in aggressive behaviors with four of the five students and maintained by parental involvement.