THE IMPORTANCE OF FRIENDSHIP IN IMPROVING THE PSYCHOSOCIAL SKILLS OF INTERACTION AND COOPERATION: EFFECTS OF A SOCIAL-COGNITIVE INTERVENTION PROGRAM ON PEER GROUPS IN SCHOOL SOCIAL NETWORKS (PROSCIG©)

The research undertaken was intended to verify if PROSCIG© (Intervention Program in Social Cognitive in Group of Pairs) lead to an effective improvement in the psychological skills of interaction and cooperation in mixed psychosocial abilities (High and Low) groups, in Medium and Low abilities groups, in English School children aged 10-11 years, using the relationship dimensions of companionship, balancing, conflict, helping others, security and closeness using the Friendship Quality Scale. With friends, children learn to communicate and cooperate. They learn to deal with themselves and with others Friendship promotes the support of social and cognitive competency, as well as a whole set of skills to deal with psychological problems throughout life. PROSCIG©'s own interaction and cooperation activities enabled the participants of the experimental groups to develop both at the individual cognitive level and at the level of exchanges of experiences. At the level of interactions that have been refined in the quality of psychosocial adjustment, children are able to maintain relationships of longer durations, where they can express themselves effectively, offering help, receiving help, understanding different points of view, developing social understanding and self-monitoring in their reactions to social policies. PROSCIG© contributes to the establishment of new scripts in the decoding of socio-cognitive competences regarding the interpersonal relationships of friendship with the peers. The results demonstrate that activities through PROSCIG© enabled an increase and improvement of the duration of the children's friendships, which was reflected in effective improvement of psychosocial interaction and cooperative skills.