Effect of a Social Skills Intervention Programme on the Emotional Intelligence of Children with Limited Social Skills: An Experimental Study

Abstract

Introduction: The present study investigated the effect of a social skills intervention programme on the emotional intelligence of children with limited social skills. While many intervention programmes have been studied for the development of social skills and emotional intelligence, most of them were conducted in foreign countries. However, the present study was conducted due to the limited availability of such programmes in India. Aim: The aim of this study was to develop an intervention programme on social skills for children with limited social skills and to determine the effect of the programme on intra and interpersonal awareness and management of these children. Materials and Methods: An experimental study was conducted at the Department of Education, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India. The study lasted for six weeks, from December 2013 to January 2014. A total of 40 ninth-grade students, aged between 13-15 years, selected from two schools in Kurukshetra, Haryana (Arya Public School and Mata Rukmini Rai School). The experimental group (n=20) received the intervention programme related to social skills, while the control group (n=20) received no intervention. The students were pre-tested and post-tested using a scale on social skills and the ‘Mangal Emotional Intelligence Inventory’ 2005 (MEII) emotional intelligence inventory. Statistical analysis “t-test” was applied for to measuring significance of the difference between the performance of the experimental and control groups. Results: The present study showed a significant change in intrapersonal and interpersonal awareness and management of children with limited social skills after the implementation of the intervention programme designed by the researcher. The calculated t-ratio for the pre-test scores of the experimental and control groups (0.19) was not significant at the prescribed levels of significance (0.05 and 0.01). This suggests that no significant difference was found between the pre-test scores of the experimental and control groups in terms of emotional intelligence. The mean score of the experimental group students (85.65) was higher than the mean score of the control group students (59.40). Conclusion: The social skills intervention programme proved to be effective in influencing the emotional intelligence of students with limited social skills. Students should be encouraged to develop social skills such as conversation skills, friendship skills, leadership skills, honesty, and teamwork, as these contribute to emotional intelligence and overall success. Cocurricular activities should be considered as important as the curriculum. Students should be observed for peer relations, lack of interest, friendship skills, and cooperative skills, as schools can be considered a miniature society where children with limited social skills can be identified early on.