Teaching conflict resolution skills to the chronically mentally Ill. Social skills training groups for briefly hospitalized patients.
Even a three-day hospital stay can include a BST group that teaches conflict skills patients can show right away.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team ran short conflict-resolution groups inside a locked psychiatric unit.
Each group lasted only a few days, the length of a brief hospital stay.
They used Behavioral Skills Training: explain, show, practice, and give feedback.
What they found
Patients left the unit with new conflict-resolution skills they could show on tests.
The study also spotted which patient traits helped learning move faster.
How this fits with other research
Edgemon et al. (2020) later copied the same short-BST recipe with teens in detention.
They swapped conflict skills for job-interview skills and still saw quick gains.
Bacon-Prue et al. (1980) and Varley et al. (1980) did the mirror image: they taught interview skills to people with intellectual disability in the 1980s.
Together the papers show one sturdy method—brief BST groups—works across ages, settings, and social skills.
Why it matters
If you run groups in hospitals, day programs, or schools, you can pack a BST cycle into three short meetings. Pick a social skill, model it, let clients rehearse, and give instant feedback. The 1990 data say even a weekend admission is enough time to plant skills that stick.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Previous research on social skills training has demonstrated its usefulness as an adjunct treatment for a variety of psychiatric disorders. At the Medical College of Pennsylvania at Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, an acute-care psychiatric hospital, a social skills training group has been in operation for over 3 years. The group is unique in its format in several ways that are described in this article. Data collected over the 3-year period are also presented. The major findings indicate that even over a very brief period of time during an acute hospitalization, patients can learn basic conflict resolution skills. Some predictors of skill acquisition were also identified.
Behavior modification, 1990 · doi:10.1177/01454455900144007