Effectiveness of teaching social-emotional competence on social skills and psychological capitals in the students with oppositional defiant disorder

The present study was conducted aiming to determine the effectiveness of teaching social-emotional competence on social skills and psychological capitals in the students with Oppositional defiant disorder. This research was a quasi-experimental study with pretest, posttest, control group and two-month follow-up period design. The statistical population included adolescent with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) studying at first grade of high schools in the City of Ahvaz in academic year 2017-18. The samples included 30 adolescents with ODD who were selected using purposeful sampling method and randomly placed into experiment and control groups (each group of 15). The experiment group received social-emotional competence teaching during nine months while the control groups didn’t receive any intervention. Gersham and Eliot’s Social Skills Questionnaire (1999), Lotanz and Olio’s Psychological Capital (2007) and Gado and Sprafkin’s, Children and Adolescents Mental Health Questionnaire (1994) were used. Repeated measurement ANOVA test was applied in order to statically analyze the data.  The results showed that teaching social-emotional competence has significantly influenced social skills and psychological capitals of the students with ODD (p<0.001). Furthermore, the results showed that this therapy was able to significantly maintain its effect in time (p<0.001). According to the findings of the present study, it can be concluded that teaching social-emotional competence using social and emotional techniques can influence social skills and psychological capitals of the students with ODD. Therefore, teaching social-emotional competence can be applied as an efficient therapy in order to improve social skills and psychological capitals of the students with ODD.