VALIDATION OF SOCIAL SKILLS OF ADOLESCENT MALES IN AN INTERVIEW CONVERSATION WITH A PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN ADULT

Susan H. Spence*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    34 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Seventy convicted young male offenders were videotaped during a 5‐min standardized interview with a previously unknown adult. In order to determine the social validity of the behavioral components of social interaction for this population, measures of 13 behaviors were obtained from the tapes. These measures were then correlated with ratings of friendliness, social anxiety, social skills performance, and employability made by four independent adult judges from the same tapes. It was found that measures of eye contact and verbal initiations were correlated significantly with all four criterion rating scales. The frequencies of smiling and speech dysfluencies were both significantly correlated with ratings of friendliness and employability. The amount spoken was found to be a significant predictor of social skills performance whereas the frequency of head movements influenced judgments of social anxiety. The latency of response was negatively correlated with social skills and employability ratings and the frequency of question‐asking and interruptions correlated significantly with friendliness, social skills, and employability ratings. Finally, the levels of gestures, gross body movements, and attention feedback responses were not found to influence judgments on any of the criterion scales. The implications of the study for selection of targets for social skills training for adolescent male offenders are discussed. 1981 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)159-168
    Number of pages10
    JournalJournal of Applied Behavior Analysis
    Volume14
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1981

    Keywords

    • adolescent males
    • interview skills
    • juvenile offenders
    • social skills training
    • social validation procedures

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