Effectiveness of a brief cognitive-behavioral prevention program for social rejection in children

Prevention programs for social rejection in children are still scarce. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral intervention program, based on development of socio-emotional competencies, designed to prevent child social rejection and associated diseases. We followed a pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental design. The sample consisted of 94 students between 8 and 12 years. Treatment consisted of a multicomponent cognitive-behavioral program, administered on a group basis, with one weekly session lasting 60 minutes each one, for a total of 6 sessions. The results supported the effectiveness of skill development program for children, showing positive treatment effects on measures of anxiety, depression, emotional intelligence and social status by sociogram. These data show the effectiveness and need of preventing the emergence of childhood social rejection and associated diseases in school setting.