Exploring the transfer effects of social skills interventions for individuals with serious mental illness: A scoping review

Objective: Adults with serious mental illness face unique social challenges. Deficits in social cognition and social isolation can impede one’s ability to engage in meaningful relationships, which can negatively impact a person’s recovery. While the literature has established the proximal effects of social skill interventions, the extent to which the treatment effects generalize to clients’ everyday lives is less conclusive. The objective of this study was to explore the literature and identify the existing social skills interventions for adults with serious mental illness and to understand the techniques used to promote generalizability beyond the clinical context. Research Design and Methods: A scoping review methodology, using the Arksey and O’Malley framework, was applied. Medline, PsycInfo, and Embase and relevant journals were searched to retrieve articles between 1995 and 2021 that reported on social skills interventions with a follow-up period or mention of transfer of skills. Results: Interventions for social skills training were classified into six categories: social cognition training, traditional social skills training, virtual reality, integrated social skills training, CBT-based training, and contextual social skills training. Four primary themes of potential generalizability techniques used in social skills interventions were identified as: a) targeting cognition, b) facilitating and supporting social opportunities, c) engaging clients’ inner social networks, and d) ensuring goals are concrete and client-centred. Conclusions: For skills training to impact personal recovery and social functioning of adults with serious mental illness, it is necessary to incorporate generalizability into interventions to ensure skills transfer from the clinical setting to their daily lives.