OUTPATIENT SOCIAL SKILLS TRAINING TO AMPLIFY POSITIVE GAINS FOR DISTRESSED

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Recent data from our study of young adults burned as children indicate that the most important long-term disabilities for burn survivors are psychological in nature. In other words, the social and emotional challenges they face seem to develop into long-lasting anxieties, fear of new social settings, and decreased self-esteem. The current study aims to (1) see if the positive findings from a previous study about a social skills training program will work again, and (2) test whether or not the previous positive findings can be maintained or amplified by modifying the format from "intensive" to "outpatient", as an "outpatient" format is less costly and more closely resembles the usual clinical schedule for most healthcare facilities. We will "randomly" assign subjects to either receive the social skills intervention or not. For the ones who receive the social skills intervention, they will be further divided into two types of groups, both of which will have the same content and will take place over the course of four days. However, the first type of group ("intensive") will take place over four days in a row (e.g., Friday to Monday) and the second type of group ("outpatient") will take place over four Saturdays in a row. At the completion of this study, we anticipate describing an efficient and relatively inexpensive intervention.