Social skills training program to prevent alcohol consumption in university students

Abstract

In the University of Oriente (UO) of Santiago de Cuba, recent diagnoses made by specialists of the Department of Psychology demonstrated in the last years an increase in the index of students that consume alcoholic beverages, the objective of this investigation was to develop a program of training in social skills that would contribute to the prevention of alcohol misuse, the methods used were intervention, where 16 students participated and was carried out through three stages. In the first, the initial diagnosis was made by applying the Goldstein social skills questionnaire, the questionnaire for the Identification of alcohol-related disorders and a group interview, then the program was designed and applied and the final phase was evaluated. The changes that emerged in the group after the intervention. The pattern of alcohol risk consumption was initially obtained, there was a prevalence in the low level of development of social skills and a limited knowledge about the harmful effects of their consumption. After the intervention, the majority of the students reached a high level of social skills development and the social consumption pattern prevailed in the group. Favorable results were obtained for the reduction of undue alcohol consumption, where adolescents reached a high level of skill development and managed to reduce the amount and frequency of their consumption.