Differential benefits of skills training with antisocial youth based on group composition: A meta-analytic investigation

A meta-analysis of 38 studies of social skills training interventions with antisocial youth was performed. Also examined were treatment effects for interventions that differed in group composition. The intervention studies yielded an overall effect size of .62 at posttreatment. As predicted, skills training interventions delivered in the context of groups consisting of only antisocial peers produced smaller benefits than did skills training interventions that avoided aggregating antisocial peers (i.e., groups comprised prosocial and antisocial youth or individual treatment). For those 18 studies for which follow-up data were reported, treatments provided in the context of either mixed or individual treatment also produced larger follow-up effect sizes than did deviant-only group interventions. These findings add to a growing body of evidence of smaller treatment benefits associated with skills training Provided in the context of groups composed exclusively of antisocial participants. Implications for the recruitment of prosocial peers for inclusion in skills training interventions for aggressive and antisocial youth are discussed.