The impact of social interest training on adolescents’ social skills and bullying behaviors

The present study investigated the effect of social interest training on male adolescents from high schools identified by their peers as bullies. The research design was quasi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test on the experimental and control groups, and a two-month follow-up. After conducting a sociometric assessment, 30 students were randomly selected from 42 adolescents identified as bullies and randomly assigned to an experimental group that received Adlerian social interest training or a delayed-treatment control group. The Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (MESSY) and the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire (OBVQ-R) were administered at the pre-test stage. The experimental group received 12 weekly sessions (two sessions per week) of social interest training, and the control group was placed on the waiting list. Two-factor analyses of variance revealed that social interest training significantly increased social skills and reduced bullying behaviors of the experimental group in the post-test and follow-up stages. A discussion of the benefits of social interest training followed.