Integrating Cognitive and Behavioral Procedures for the Treatment of Socially Isolated Children

Abstract

Social development in children remains a topic of interest to developmental psychologists, with a large literature devoted to understanding the ways in which adults influence and shape children’s social behavior, both prosocial and aggressive. In recent years, however, there has been increased recognition of the importance of peer interaction in the process of a child’s development (Hartup, 1979a; Lewis & Rosenblum, 1975). Experience with peers is seen as a necessary part of childhood socialization, providing an arena for sex-role learning, moral and cognitive development, mastery of aggressive impulses, and the achievement of general social competence (Hartup, 1976, 1979b). Similarly, much of the attention of mental health professionals concerned with childhood maladjustment has in the past focused on personality characteristics of the children, specific observable child behaviors, and relationships among the child’s family members. However, there is a growing body of research suggesting that poor peer relations are a powerful predictor of adult maladjustment (Cowen, Pederson, Babigian, Izzo, & Trost, 1973; Kohlberg, LaCrosse, & Ricks, 1972; Roff, 1961; Roff, Sells, & Golden, 1972).