Social skills training in the promotion of effective coping: A pilot trial.

This research aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a Social Skills Training (SST) in increasing social skills, reducing stress levels, and developing effective coping of eight female undergraduate Psychology students. The participants were recruited through a form sent on social media and telephone contact and were voluntarily submitted to the intervention at the university in which they studied. The intervention, analogous to a quasi-experiment, had pre- and posttest evaluations without a control group, using the instruments Social Skills Inventory 2 (IHS2-Del-Prette), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14), Folkman and Lazarus' Coping Strategies Inventory, interviews, and a field diary. The results indicated stress reduction, acquisition of social skills, and enhancement of problem-solving strategies. Further studies regarding the evaluation of the SST's efficacy in a larger and more heterogeneous sample of university students would be worthwhile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]