School-Based Social Competence Promotion as a Primary Prevention Strategy

Abstract

School-based promotion of social competence continues to be a promising strategy for the primary prevention of psy-chosocial difficulties in children. Drawing on more than a decade of experience using this strategy, the authors identify major challenges they have encountered in the process of developing, implementing, evaluating, and maintaining social competence promotion programs in the schools. They emphasize the importance of using a dynamic, social-ecological conceptualization of both social competence and the organizational change process. Particular attention is given to overcoming obstacles to implementation and to long-term adoption of programs. Throughout, examples are drawn from the author's specific experiences with two longitudinal, multi-site projects.