The Case for Interaction Skills Training in the Context of Tutoring as a Preventive Mental Health Intervention in Schools

Abstract

The goal of preventing mental and behavioral disorders requires that important psychological and social interactional skills be transmitted to developing generations in the most effective manner possible. This article examines the evidence for the following hypotheses: (a) that positive, friendly, kind, cooperative interactions are highly relevant to the prevention of psychiatric disorders and antisocial behavior; (b) that academic competence (e.g., in reading, mathematics, and writing) is also an extremely important psychological health skill for children; (c) that the prevention enterprise encounters a major obstacle when it depends upon programs into which only a fraction of the target population will ever enter, while the prevailing culture of the target population provides massive exposure to hostility; and (d) that one of the most promising ways of overcoming these obstacles is a transformation and restructuring of schools so that the nurturing and academic training of younger students by older students is part of the daily experience of each student and a training ground upon which important psychological skills can be modeled, instructed, practiced, monitored, and reinforced.