Social Competence Promotion Program for Young Adolescents (SCPP-YA)

The Social Competence Promotion Program for Young Adolescents (SCPP–YA) is a school prevention program that teaches students cognitive, behavioral, and affective skills and encourages them to apply these skills in dealing with daily challenges, problems, and decisions. The program targets African-American and white youths in middle and junior high schools.
The 45-session SCPP–YA has three modules. The first module includes 27 lessons of intensive instruction in social problem-solving (SPS) skills. Students are taught to 1) stop, calm down, and think before they act, 2) express the problem (aloud) and how they feel, 3) set a positive goal, 4) think of lots of solutions, 5) think ahead to the consequences, and 6) go ahead and try the best plan. These foundational lessons are followed by two nine-session programs that teach students to apply SPS skills to the prevention of substance abuse and high-risk sexual behavior. To foster the application and generalization of SPS concepts and skills to daily life, teachers are trained to model problem-solving to students in situations other than formal classroom lessons and to guide and encourage students to try out problem-solving strategies in school, at home, and in the community.