The Effect of Social Skills Education on Social Skills and Interpersonal Relationship Levels in Student Nurses

Background: Social skills educations are effective in improving social skills in individuals and reducing social anxiety levels and yielding positive changes in interpersonal relations, psychological wellbeing, and happiness levels and in reducing verbal aggression.

Aim: The study was conducted to determine the level of social skills of student nurses and to evaluate social skills education’s effect on the social skills and interpersonal relationships of nursing students.

Methods: The quasi-experimental study was conducted with a non-randomized control group (CG) using a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up design. The research was conducted with 78 undergraduate nursing 1st year students at a nursing school in Türkiye. Eight weeks of social skills training program were applied to the experimental group (EG). The number, percentage, arithmetic mean and standard deviation, Chi-square, Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, Mann–Whitney U test, Friedman Test, and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test were used for data analysis.

Results: The mean age of the students in the EG was 19.23 ± 2.09 and the mean age of the CG was 18.94 ± 1.02. It was determined that there was no difference between the groups in terms of their sociodemographic variables. While there was a significant increase in the social skills scores of the students who participated in the social skills training group because of the follow-up after the training and in the 4th month, no change was found in the CG. In the EG, the interpersonal relations scale showed a significant decrease in the toxic relationship style dimension in the 4th month follow-up but no change was detected in the CG.

Conclusion: As a result of the study, it was determined that the social skills training program had a positive effect on the social skill levels of the students and that the training program influenced the toxic relationship style in the 4th month follow-up test. In future studies, the social skills training program may be included peer learning or peer mentoring-based experiences.