Social Skills as Exchange Resources

The documentation given in the 1970s and 1980s of social skills deficits in children and adolescents who lack friends and other positive peer contacts is well‐known, and so is the increasing attention paid to social skill development. However, it seems that a broad or integrating theoretical framework for the analysis of social skills remains to be developed, and that this makes application of research findings and experiences in this area difficult. The article suggests a conceptualization of social skills as exchange resources, as a contribution to an integrating process.