Effects of a School-Based Program to Enhance Prosocial Development on Children's Peer Relations and Social Adjustment

This research extends previous studies of the effectiveness of a comprehensive elementary school program, designed to enhance prosocial development, by examining effects on children's peer relations and social adjustment during the upper-elementary grades. The program was provided to students at three schools in a middle class suburban community for seven years, beginning in the fall of 1982. Students at three demographically-matched schools in the same community served as a comparison group. After matching, program and comparison schools were randomly assigned to condition. Assessments of a cohort of program and comparison students in third through sixth grades