Enhancing Social Skills through School Social Work Interventions during Recess: Gender Differences

Recess serves as a prime example of an underused social work intervention opportunity in schools. As members of the school community well know, recess is the time that both students and teachers look forward to everyday. However, the entire school climate can be negatively affected when problems occur on the playground. This article describes and evaluates a recess-based social skill intervention that targets elementary- aged school children and their behaviors on the playground. Program effectiveness will be explored by examining changes in problem behaviors from before and during the program. Special attention will be paid to gender differences.