Myrna B. Shure

Interpersonal problem-solving in young children: A cognitive approach to prevention

An interpersonal cognitive problem-solving (ICPS) intervention, designed to reduce and prevent impulsive and inhibited behaviors in black low socioeconomic status (SES) 4- and 5-year-olds, was implemented by teachers and evaluated over a 2-year period. In the first year, 113 children were trained and 106 were not. The 131 still-available in kindergarten were divided into four groups: Twice-trained (n = 39); Once-trained, Nursery (n = 30); Once-trained, Kindergarten (n = 35), and Never-trained controls (n = 27). Findings showed that (a) ICPS impact on behavior lasted at least 1 full year, (b) training was as effective in kindergarten as in nursery, and (c) for this age and SES group, 1 year of intervention had the same immediate behavior impact as 2. Further, well-adjusted children trained in nursery were less likely to begin showing behavioral difficulties over the 2-year period than were comparable controls, highlighting implications of the ICPS approach for primary prevention.

Interpersonal problem solving as a mediator of behavioral adjustment in preschool and kindergarten children

Abstract An experimental model tested the mediating function of interpersonal cognitive problem solving skills on behavioral adjustment in preschool and kindergarten children. Relative to controls, nursery-trained youngsters improved in three such skills, kindergarten-trained in two. In both the nursery- and kindergarten-trained groups, increased ability to conceptualize alternative solutions to interpersonal problems significantly related to improved social adjustment. Consequential thinking also emerged as a clear behavioral mediator, especially among kindergarten-aged youngsters. Improvement in behavior could not, however, be attributed to change in causal thinking skills. Having identified two significant behavioral mediators in young children, a beginning has been made to isolate specific thinking skills, which, if enhanced, can contribute to healthy social adjustment and interpersonal competence at an early age.

Interpersonal cognitive problem solving and primary prevention: Programming for preschool and kindergarten children 1

Abstract A competence‐building model of primary prevention was evaluated on 131 inner‐city black nursery and kindergarten children over a two year period. The major question is whether enhancing interpersonal cognitive problem solving (ICPS) skills of four‐and five‐year‐olds could improve inhibited and impulsive behaviors when they already exist, and prevent them from emerging when they do not. Findings suggest that ICPS training does reduce and prevent such behaviors, that the ICPS and behavioral impact of such programming lasts at least one full year following intervention, and that for youngsters not trained in nursery, kindergarten is not too late. However, more children do begin kindergarten at a better behavioral van‐tagepoint if lCPS‐programming is implemented a year earlier, in nursery.

The Cognition of Social Adjustment

Over the past decade, and especially the past few years, there has been a surge of interest in interpersonal problem solving among those involved in clinical and developmental issues. This interest has been stimulated in part by our attempts to identify, measure, and enhance a set of thinking processes we all have come to call interpersonal cognitive problem-solving skills (ICPS). The purposes of this chapter are (1) to outline the theory and assumptions underlying this work, (2) to describe ICPS skills that have been or are in the process of being identified, (3) to introduce the notion of non-ICPS thought and its possible relationship to ICPS thought, and (4) to describe formal training programs and informal dialoguing techniques that have been found to enhance ICPS and subsequent behavioral adjustment.

I can problem solve (ICPS): Interpersonal cognitive problem solving for young children

Teachers of low‐income preschool and kindergarten children were trained to help youngsters learn to think through and solve typical interpersonal problems with peers and adults. Compared to non‐ trained controls, youngsters trained to think of alternative solutions to problems and consequences to acts most improved in impulsive and inhibited behaviors as observed in the classroom. Training was equally effective in nursery and in kindergarten, though those trained in nursery began school from a better behavioral vantage point. Also, low income children trained at home by their mothers were able to generalize their new problem solving thinking skills to a different setting, the school.

Interpersonal cognitive problem solving (ICPS): A competence‐building primary prevention program

Summary This paper provides a description of Interpersonal Cognitive Problem Solving, a competence‐building primary prevention program. The theory underlying the program is described and an outline, including excerpts from actual scripts, is provided.

Enhancing the Process of Resilience Through Effective Thinking

In the first edition of this book, a problem-solving approach to resiliency was illustrated to show how early high-risk behaviors as physical and verbal aggression could be reduced and prevented, and how clinical applications of the problem-solving approach could enhance the resiliency of children exhibiting emotional disturbance and ADHD. We have now learned that a different form of aggression, called relational aggression, popularized by the “mean girls syndrome” (e.g., Simmons, 2002; Wiseman, 2002) can stifle resilience, and how the problem-solving approach can help both the perpetrator and the victim of such behaviors. We have also learned how a feeling of bonding to school can increase resilience, and how the problem-solving approach can promote that feeling. Finally, we have discovered that in addition to emotional disturbance and ADHD, children with other diagnoses can be helped with the problem-solving approach, and how this can transpire with Asperger’s syndrome will be illustrated.

Enhancing childrearing skills in lower income women.

There are many ways parents can affect the behavior of their children. They can demand, suggest, and even explain why their suggested idea is a good one. They can praise a child who complies, or discipline one who does not. While momentary needs may be satisfied, often more those of the parent than of the child, the parent is either thinking for the child, or urging desired behavior with no thought at all.