Finding
Overall, children's social competence was influenced by their age.
Paper
The Relationship between Children's Individual Variables, Mothers' Emotionality and Children's Social Competence
Abstract
The purpose of this research was to identify the importance of social competence in early childhood, age 3 to 5, by examining the relationship between the children's variables such as gender, age, and temperament, with that of their mothers' emotionality, and the social competence. 72 children in the early childhood age bracket were surveyed. Three major findings were established. Firstly, there were no gender differences in relation to social competence. Children's adaptability and social activity were related to their pro-social behavior and the ability to internalize/externalize problems. Secondly, children exhibited pro-social behavior only when their mother's emotional reactivity was positive. hirdly, children's social competence was influenced by individual variables and their mothers' emotionality. Prosocial behavior, a lower ranking domain, was influenced by children's adaptability and mothers' emotional reactivity. The children's ability to internalize problem was influenced by adaptability. In contrast, The ability to externalize problem was influenced by the range of activities they were involved in. Overall, children's social competence was influenced by their age.
Authors
Ra-ri An, Hee-Jin Kim
Journal
Family and environment research