Treatment of the adolescent sex offender is a complex process often involving extensive therapeutic intervention. While empirically sound descriptive data concerning the adolescent sex offender is lacking, retrospective accounts frequently describe the youthful offender as possessing a social skills deficit. Drawing on this notion, an investigation was completed to examine the effects of utilizing a prepackaged social skills training program (SST) as part of a comprehensive treatment program with a group of outpatient offenders. The study had two purposes: (1) to determine whether or not the adolescent offenders participating in the experimental group would learn and incorporate into their repertoire the specific social skills taught in the program, and (2) to assess whether or not the combined effects of therapeutic intervention and social skills training resulted in perceived improvement on self-report and parent-report measures of variables associated with social competence, problem behaviors, and self-concept. Results indicate that adolescent sex offenders learned, to a significantly greater degree, the specific social skills taught than did the control group. The findings for improved social competence and problem behaviors were mixed, while there is some indication that self-concept improved for the experimental group over the control group.
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