Producing generalization of inpatient adolescents' social skills with significant adults in a natural environment

A program to produce social skills generalization in a natural environment to significant adults was evaluated for six inpatient adolescents. Generalization was assessed with two different sets of untrained social situations that were similar to those used in training. One set was assessed during probe simulations conducted throughout training and the other in unobtrusive pre/posttests conducted at the subjects' school during a regular class. The training criteria, general skill areas, and pre/post situations were socially validated and treatment acceptability was assessed. A multiple baseline design across groups (n=3) showed that training increased the subjects' targeted skills. The probes revealed that five subjects displayed generalization and the other did so following training in the probe setting. All six subjects displayed moderate (a 40% increase) to strong (an 80% increase) generalization in the initial posttest conducted one day after training. At a three month follow-up, four of the five subjects who remained in the facility either increased or maintained their initial posttest performance, and the fifth exceeded his pretest level by 60%. The implications of these results and suggestions for future research are discussed.