Abstract

Young children who exhibit behavioral problems often have deficient skills in the area of problem-solving. Several interpersonal or social problem-solving interventions have been used to teach young children to solve problems through the use of both academic and social skills. Interventions have included cognitive-behavioral strategies, interpersonal cognitive problem-solving self-management, self-talk, and self-instruction procedures. Research has demonstrated that each of these strategies is successful.

Current research indicates that problem-solving interventions are effective at increasing problem-solving skills in young children. A review of problem-solving and related literature indicated that while some interventions are successful in improving problem-solving skills, frequently the types of solutions the student generated remained aggressive. Another finding was that non-aggressive problem-solving skills do not generalize to children's interactions in typical situations.

The present study was conducted to determine whether a problem-solving strategy would affect children's alternative solutions to social interaction conflicts and to assess whether this skill would generalize to typical preschool settings. An A-B design was replicated four times with four preschool subjects who exhibited aggressive methods for resolving social conflicts. A non-treatment group was added for comparison. Children's stories provided the context for teaching the problem-solving strategy. Individual probe sessions measured the effect of the problem-solving strategy on the types of solutions that the subjects generated.

While the A-B design does not provide validation of a functional relationship, replications revealed two outcomes. First, instruction in the problem-solving strategy increased each treatment subject's frequency of prosocial solutions and decreased their frequency of aggressive solutions during individual probes. Second, the subjects' rates of aggressive behaviors decreased in typical play activities. In contrast, the non-treatment group's solutions showed little or no change in prosocial or aggressive solutions.

Some confounding variables affected statements regarding the increase of some of the non-treatment subjects' aggressive behavior. The data showed that in the absence of intervention, little change occurred. These outcomes indicate that children's prosocial solutions can be affected when a context for problem-solving is paired with the problem-solving strategy.