What Works for Promoting and Enhancing Positive Social Skills: Lessons from Experimental Evaluations of Programs and Interventions

This fact sheet reviews 38 rigorously evaluated programs to identify what works to promote social skills among children and adolescents (such as getting along with others, expressing empathy to others, trying to resolve conflicts, and regulating emotions and behaviors). Overall, most of the programs (27 out of 38) significantly increased at least one social skill in children and adolescents. Programs that incorporated peer teaching, group discussion, or role modeling, as well as teacher-led instruction, were effective. The fact sheet includes a chart summarizing the programs and whether they were found to work, not proven to work, or had mixed findings