Efectos comportamentales de un programa de habilidades sociales en jóvenes de 14 a 18 años en situación de vulnerabilidad

Introduction: Social skills are important for adaptation by individuals to different social contexts. It can be difficult for adolescents to establish and maintain competent social interactions due to changes stemming from their development. Objective: To analyze the behavioral effects of a social skills program among young people 14 to 18 years of age in a situation of vulnerability, at the Fundacion Club Campestre de Bucaramanga (country club). Methodology: To measure social skills, the Social Skills Scale (Escala de Habilidades Sociales (EHS)), created in 2000 by Elena Gismero at the Universidad Pontificia de Madrid, was used. It is a 33 item questionnaire that explores the individual conduct of the subject in specific situations and assesses the extent to which social skills modulate these attitudes. 50 students from the Fundacion Club Campestre took part and were divided into two groups: experimental and control. The working mythology was the application of pre-tests to measure skills, continued with application of the program and ended with the post-test to analyze the results. Results: The program generated behavioral effects among the young people, in other words, socially skillful conducts in the young people and strengthening of their repertoire of social skills, with improvement in coexistence in their social context, fewer aggressive responses and more assertive response schemes. Conclusion: The results suggest that social skills programs are useful tools for intervention among young people with difficulties developing such skills.