The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of social skills training (SST) on children’s self-efficacy for receiving new classmate. A total of 33 elementary school students in the fifth grade participated class-wide SST, while the other 36 children in the same grade were administered into waiting-list control group. Training sessions were held in the daily-used classroom and targeted two social skills: friendship-making skills and problem-solving skills. Participants’ social skills and self-efficacy for receiving new classmate were measured through self-reported questionnaires. Results showed that children, only in SST group, decreased their social withdrawal and increased self-efficacy for receiving new classmate. Correlational analysis revealed that the change of prosocial behavior through training was positively correlated with the change of self-efficacy. In contrast, the change of social withdrawal and aggressive behavior were negatively correlated with the change of self-efficacy. Finally, methodological issues and future directions are discussed.
