Social Competence

This book is a theoretical and practical guide in the field of social skills and social competence, based on decades of experience gained by the authors as researchers and professionals in psychology. The book was written for students and professionals who are involved in some way improving individuals´ social skills in different contexts, such as clinical, educational, organizational and community settings. The authors present the conceptual foundations, procedures, techniques, strategies and practical guidelines for planning and conducting effective programs aimed to social skills and social competence.
In the first part of the book, key concepts and fundamentals on the area are presented, as well as the basic behavioral classes of social skills and their non-verbal and paralinguistic components. The authors also propose a portfolio for the assessment of clients’ social skills deficits and strengths to thereby define the aims and procedures of interventions.

The second part focuses on guidelines to select and use procedures and techniques for promoting social skills and social competence. The authors present experiential activities that they created in previous interventions and that were tested in their research, showing evidence of effectiveness. Suggestions on how to evaluate participants’ repertoires and how to use these ideas in intervention planning are also described.

Finally, in the third part of the book, the authors go further presenting practical guidelines for planning and conducting programs and sessions to promote social skills and social competence, in either group or individual settings.

An intervention was developed to promote parent involvement with ethnic minority families of children attending Head Start preschool programs. Two hundred eighty-eight predominantly African American families from a small southern city were included in this study. Parent satisfaction with the program was high, yet engagement was less than optimal. Some effects were found for the program, despite low levels of participation. Ethnic minority parents who received the intervention increased the frequency of reading to their child as compared with parents in a comparison group who did not receive the program. The quality of the parent-teacher relationship was significantly correlated with parental participation in the intervention. Program participation and the parent-teacher relationship were correlated with higher levels of children's school readiness abilities. Children in the intervention condition showed stronger end-of-year receptive vocabulary and parent-rated social competence...

This study investigated personal and contextual influences to young children’s perceived self-efficacy (SE) in social and independent learning situations. The participants were
children (n = 24) 6–8 years old from four Finnish elementary school classrooms. First, teachers from each classroom were asked to rate their students’ social competence
(SC). Second, the participants were videotaped in 45 social and 15 independent learning situations, and later interviewed about their SE perceptions using videostimulated
recall. Participants with higher SE demonstrated more stable perceptions and greater involvement in social learning situations. However, a statistically significant
relationship between perceived SE and SC was not found. Participants also identified 4 factors promoting perceived SE: positive emotional states, mastery experiences,
personal strategic behavior, and contextual support.

Рассмотрена социокультурная компетенция ино-
странных студентов как составная часть коммуникативной компе-
тенции. Представлены объекты обучения социокультурным сред-
ствам общения: ознакомление учащихся со страной изучаемого
языка и приобретение страноведческих и культурных знаний и
норм поведения, усвоение наиболее употребительных языковых
единиц с национально-культурной семантикой. Предложен отбор
учебного материала с учетом осуществления социальных ролей
обучающихся в сфере бытового, учебно-профессионального и со-
циокультурного общения с целью формирования социокультурной
компетенции. Выделено три типа информации: предметная, фоно-
вая и сопровождающая, – которые используются для адаптации
студентов в процессе обучения.

The article discusses the social and cultural competence
of foreign students as the main part of the communicative competence.
Objects of education for social and cultural means of communication,
such as introduction of students to a country of a language they study,
acquisition of cross-cultural and cultural knowledge, and standards of
behavior, learning of the most common linguistic units with national and
cultural semantics are described in the article. A selection of teaching
materials taking into account social roles of students in everyday,
education and professional, and social and cultural communication
to develop the social and cultural competence are also given. Subjectrelated, background and accompanying types of information are used to adapt students to the learning process.

Adolescence represents a developmental period of waning academic motivation, particularly in STEM domains. To combat this, better understanding the factors that might foster STEM motivation and interest is of importance. Social factors like social competencies and feelings of belonging become increasingly important in adolescence. The current study investigated structural relations between social competencies, feelings of belonging to an informal STEM learning program, math and science efficacy and interest in a sample of 268 adolescents (M age = 15.25; 66.8% girls; 42.5% White British or European American, 25.7% South Asian British or Asian American, 15.7% Afro-Caribbean Black British or African American 5.6% Bi-racial, and 3.0% other). Adolescents were recruited from six different informal learning sites (e.g., science museums, zoos, or aquariums) in the United States (n = 147) and the United Kingdom (n = 121). The results revealed positive relations between social competencies an...

The present investigation examines the impact of family, self, and peer systems, evaluated during early adolescence, on the development of interpersonal competence in young adulthood. The participants were 110 Caucasian individuals, their mothers, and one of their teachers. At the first assessment, the participants ranged in age from 11.5 to 15.1 years old. Approximately six years later, the participants completed a second evaluation involving assessment of interpersonal competence. Increased interparental conflict and parental divorce predicted decreased self-esteem. Decreased self-esteem predicted poorer peer-adolescent relationships, which, in turn, forecasted poorer adult interpersonal competence. The results suggest that living in a distressed family leads to diminished self-esteem which can influence the quality of peer relationships and place an adolescent on a trejectory toward difficulties in interpersonal competence during adulthood.

Social and emotional competence are intricately linked, both developmentally and functionally. This entry begins with an overview of social competence, and then reviews several influential models of emotional competence, from which key components of emotional competence that are critical for effective social functioning are identified. How these components, which include emotional understanding and emotion regulation, develop in childhood, and how they contribute to successful social development, are explored. The role of early social experiences in the development of emotional competence, and how emotional competence in turn contributes to the development of social competence, directly and indirectly through enriching the social landscape, are described. Finally, opportunities and strategies for supporting the development of social and emotional competence at home and in school are considered.

The German National Educational Panel Study covers educational processes during Kindergarten and elementary school age in two stages: “Kindergarten and transition to elementary school” and “elementary school and transition to lower secondary school.” One cohort covers both of these two stages, starting in winter 2010/2011 with a cluster sample of 3,000 target children at about age 4 in Kindergarten. When most of these children enter school, the cohort will be more than doubled by integrating their classmates into the survey. In addition to direct assessment of children’s competencies, their parents are interviewed and teachers and principals fill out self-administered questionnaires. In these stages, assessments focus on early scientific and mathematical literacy as well as language competencies (e.g., vocabulary, grammar, phonological awareness). We survey the structure and aspects of the quality of Kindergarten and elementary school, families, and nonformal learning environments. Information on parents’ socioeconomic status and their evaluation of decision-relevant aspects allows us to model school choice and disentangle primary and secondary effects of stratification. Theoretically relevant aspects of migrants’ situation are surveyed. Further aspects are children’s health, social competencies, and the different care settings. Bildungsprozesse im Kindergarten und in der Grundschule werden im Nationalen Bildungspanel durch zwei Etappen abgedeckt: „Kindergarten und Übergang in die Grundschule“ und „Grundschule und der Übergang zur Sekundarstufe“. Diese beiden Etappen haben eine gemeinsame Startkohorte, die im Winter 2010/2011 mit einer Clusterstichprobe von 3.000 Kindergartenkindern im Alter von ca. 4 Jahren startet. Bei der Einschulung dieser Kinder wird der Stichprobenumfang mehr als verdoppelt, da nun auch deren Mitschüler in die Studie aufgenommen werden. Zusätzlich zur direkten Erfassung der kindlichen Kompetenzen werden die Eltern der Kinder telefonisch befragt und die pädagogischen Fachkräfte und Leitungen der Kindergärten bzw. Schulen füllen Fragebögen aus. In den beiden Etappen werden primär frühe naturwissenschaftliche und mathematische Fähigkeiten sowie Sprachkompetenzen (z. B. Wortschatz, Grammatik, phonologische Bewusstheit, Lesekompetenz) erhoben. Zudem werden Struktur- und Qualitätsaspekte von Kindergärten, Grundschulen, Familien sowie von informellen/non-formalen Lernumwelten erfasst. Die Erfassung des sozioökonomischen Status der Eltern und deren Bewertung relevanter Aspekte von Schulwahlentscheidungen ermöglichen die analytische Unterscheidung zwischen primären und sekundären Effekten der sozialen Herkunft. Zudem werden theoriegeleitet migrationsrelevante Indikatoren von Kindern, Eltern und pädagogischen Fachkräften erhoben. Weitere erfasste Bereiche sind Sozialkompetenzen, der Gesundheitszustand und die Betreuungssituation der Kinder.

This article explores the relationship between conflict and violence through a review of the literature about young children's conflict with their peers. Information about the nature of young children's conflicts and how teachers respond is presented and discussed in relation to 3 questions. First, do conflicts between children lead to violence? Second, what constitutes competent conflict resolution behavior? Third, how do children develop competent conflict resolution skills? This review of the literature indicates that conflicts between children do not naturally lead to violence. Rather, it is when children are unable to resolve their own conflicts, and when they are not supported in their efforts at resolutions, that violence is likely to result. While conflicts with peers provide a natural opportunity for children to develop competent conflict resolution skills, teachers must provide assistance as needed. Suggestions for further reading on this topic are provided.

Emotional competence is crucial to children's ability to interact and form relationships with others (Parke, 1994; Saarni, 1990). As Saarni (1990) stated, ''We are talking about how [children] can respond emotion-ally, yet simultaneously and strategically apply their knowledge about ...