Recent research suggests that children's ability to solve interpersonal problems is related to their social adjustment. As children are continually confronted with personal and interpersonal problems which they must solve in order to maintain positive peer relations, the study and promotion of effective problem solving skills is of great importance. The aim of the present study was to assess children's responses to hypothetical problem situations as well as to assess their overt behavioral responses in a simulated problem situation. Children were classified as socially effective (well-liked) and socially ineffective (withdrawn and aggressive) on the basis of peer and teacher ratings and nominations. Children then responded to six hypothetical stories describing an interpersonal problem (three involving a peer conflict and three involving the initiation of an interaction with a peer) and participated in two simulated real-life behavioral problem situations which mirrored two of the hypothetical stories. The results suggest some correspondence between hypothetical and behavioral indices of social problem solving skill. Withdrawn males generated fewer alternatives to both hypothetical and behavioral situations, and offered more non-confrontative intention statements to peer initiation stories than did other children. In contrast, aggressive males were found to differ from other children in the proportion of aggressive intention statements offered and in the proportion of aggressive acts produced in the peer conflict situation. Suggestions for future modifications and replications of the present research are made and implications for designing intervention programs are offered.

This phenomenological study examined the social interactions during online game play in a virtual environment for five young adults with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who attended a large metropolitan university, enrolled in the first 60 credits of a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) field of study. Given the evolution of technology and opportunities to socialize in virtual communities, it is becoming increasingly important to understand how young adults with ASD assimilate into new social opportunities that provide supports for extraneous variables such as face-to-face situations. As research begins to emerge on virtual environments there is little research addressed specific to socialization and the development of interpersonal relationships. Further, there is a distinct lack of research specific to young adults with ASD who engage socially in virtual environments. A phenomenological research method was used to explain the social activities as they occurred for this specific group of individuals. Structured and unstructured interviews, observations, document analysis, and a self-reporting survey were conducted and collected. Analysis used emergent coding following Moustakas* modified Van Kaam method (1994). Common themes were identified and reported through lists and tables. In summary, this study described how young adults with ASD socialized within a virtual community. This study provided findings that individuals with ASD actively seek friendships, recognize emotions, understand roles within the game and real life use skills necessary for success in postsecondary education and STEM related careers, and lays the foundation for continuing research using virtual environments to support interpersonal relationships that may support greater postsecondary outcomes.

This study examined indicators of 3rd Grade students’ non-school activity participation (NSAP) for associations with measures of social competence and reading performance. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K), representative of a 1999 kindergarten cohort of more than 14,000 students was used. The study constructed social competence composites from responses provided by students, parents and teachers. Principal component analysis and iterative bivariate correlations were utilized to derive the most robust composite for use in tests of the main hypotheses of the study. Results confirmed prior research findings that social competence has strong positive associations with academic performance. Thereafter, the social competence composite and ECLS Reading IRT Scale Score were used as alternative outcome measures in the bivariate analyses and linear regressions on non-school activity participation (NSAP) and breadth of non-school activity participation (BNSAP) scores. Cluster and multiple regression analyses combined in the study and brought demographic and cognitive controls to bear on iterations of five distinct views of the independent variables. Results indicated that girls influenced the association strengths observed for NSAP, and boys seemed to drive the direction and strength of BNSAP associations. Although regression betas for total samples were nominal, when viewed by demographic cluster samples the values were appreciatively improved. The use of the cluster distinctions provided views of significant associations that were otherwise dissolved into nominal aggregates. The results of these analyses support the construct validity of applying the aggregate scoring metric of EAP research to NSAP. Regression results prompted a call for future inquiries into student self-selection.

Despite extensive statements about the importance of possessing good interpersonal skills, little quantitative evidence has been brought forth to investigate these claims. At the same time, training in soft, or interpersonal, skills continues for organizational managers, customer service representatives, and members of formal work teams. Based on these considerations, the current research was guided by five broad questions. First, are gender and the Big Five personality variables important predictors in the use and effectiveness of interpersonal skills? Second, what is the relationship between various interpersonal skills and important personal and workplace outcomes? Third, given that training in interpersonal skills is prevalent in organizations today, does this training work? Further, and perhaps more importantly, under what conditions do these training interventions result in optimal outcomes? Lastly, does job complexity moderate the relationship between interpersonal skills and outcomes? To answer these questions, a series of meta-analytic investigations was conducted. The results of these analyses provided evidence for the existence of meaningful antecedents of interpersonal skills. In addition, relationships between interpersonal skills and outcomes were identified, with hypotheses in this area confirmed. The results of this research demonstrate the beneficial impact of interpersonal skills training for improving interpersonal skills. Finally, in line with predictions, job complexity was identified as a moderator of the relationship between interpersonal skills and outcomes. The current document concludes with recommendations both for researchers interested in furthering the science of interpersonal skills research, and for practitioners charged with improving the interpersonal skills of their workforce.

Research conducted on video modeling has shown that these strategies are most effective when they include specific strategies to address conversation skills. Social skills research has also shown that teaching social skills to adolescents in group settings may be more effective than presenting them on an individual basis. Adolescents with Aspergers Syndrome (AS) and High functioning Autism (HFA) participated in a12-week Social Skills Training (SST) program. In addition to pre-and post-study measures, conversation skills data were collected before and after the application of the independent variable (video modeling). Follow-up interviews were also conducted with participants, secondary participants, and parents of the primary participants. After a two-week baseline phase, participants attended weekly social skills training and received the treatment of video modeling with videos found on YouTube. This established pre-existing social and conversation skills and enabled the measurement of changes over the course of the 12 week program. After post intervention data were collected, additional data were collected with participants and secondary participants, neuro-typical peers, as a measure of treatment generalization. This study proposed that presenting social skills videos found on YouTube, would be effective in increasing levels of initiation, responses and conversation skills, thereby increasing communication effectiveness and reducing social rejection by peers. Although some gains in conversational skill levels were observed by most participants in the study significant increases in conversation skill levels were not observed in both ASD only group settings or of the ASD neuro-typical mixed group setting.

Perspective-taking skills are central to the successful navigation of social situations. Children need perspective-taking skills to help them correctly interpret different cues and accurately assess social situations so they can determine how to best respond. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) exhibit marked impairments in this area. In order to develop successful social skills interventions for this population, it is critical that we have a strong understanding of the nature of their deficits. While there is robust evidence that children with ASD experience difficulty making inferences about the beliefs of others, research on their ability to infer emotions has had more mixed results (Baldwin, 1991; Baron-Cohen, 1991; Happe, 1994; Hillier and Allinson, 2002; Kaland et al., 2005; Joliffe & Baron-Cohen, 1999; Serra et al., 2002; Williams & Happe, 2010). This study examined how well children with autism spectrum disorders are able to make emotional inferences using three different measures of emotion attribution. The measures were administered to a clinical sample of participants with high functioning-autism spectrum disorders (HF-ASD) and a comparison sample of typically developing participants to determine whether individuals with HF-ASD experienced more difficulty making emotional inferences from different cues than their typically developing peers. The hypotheses that children with HF-ASD make fewer spontaneous emotional inferences and have lower levels of emotional awareness than their typically developing peers were also tested. Finally, performance on these emotional inferencing measures was examined to determine whether they were able to reliably discriminate between participants with different levels of autism-related symptomatology. Participants with autism performed as well as their peers on all measures of emotion attribution in this study. These findings and their implications are explored.

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