Impact of a school-based social skills training program on parent–child relationships and parent attitudes toward school

Abstract

Developmental research suggests that peer rejection has negative spillover effects which strain parent–child relationships and parent attitudes toward the child’s school. This study tested whether a school-based social skill training program could reverse these effects and improve parent–child closeness and parent attitudes toward the school. Participants included 217 children who were rejected by peers (57% White, 17% Black, 20% Latinx, 5% multiracial; 68% male; M age = 8.1 years old) identified with sociometric social preference scores and randomized to intervention or control groups. Parents rated parent–child closeness and parent attitudes toward school at the start and end of the intervention year. Multilevel path analyses indicated that intervention improved parent–child closeness and, for children in the older grade levels only, enhanced parent attitudes toward the school. Additional analyses revealed that intervention effects on parent–child closeness were direct whereas effects on attitudes toward school were mediated by intervention-related increases in teacher support and peer liking. Implications for intervention design and future research are discussed.