Abstract
Recent research has suggested that preschool children who exhibit relational aggression (e.g., harming others through manipulation and damage to the relationship) are socially and emotionally maladjusted. In the present study, a social skills training program was developed and applied to a 5-year-old girl, in an attempt to reduce her relationally aggressive behavior. Pre-training assessments, including teacher ratings and behavioral observations, showed that she had a high level of relational aggression, poor social skills, and high exclusivity in her friendships. The training program, ten 15-min sessions in a training room, focused on (1) providing opportunities for her to interact more often with her peers by including in the training program 2 other girls with whom she did not usually interact, and by teaching friendshipmaking skills, and (2) teaching self-control skills. After the training, the girl's relational aggression decreased, and her positive social interactions with her peers and her social skills increased. At a 3-month follow-up assessment, these changes were observed to have been maintained. The effectiveness and significance of social skills training for relationally aggressive preschoolers were discussed.
