abstract: This study examined whether social support available to parents moderated the heritability of parent-reported social approach at 12 months (N = 286 twin pairs, 52.00% female) and social competence at 30 months (N = 259 twin pairs, 53.30% female). Genetic and environmental covariance across age is also reported. Social support consistently moderated genetic influences on children’s social approach and competence, such that heritability was highest when parents reported low social support. Shared environment was not moderated by social support and explained continuity across age. Findings provide further evidence that genetic and environmental influences on development vary across context. When parents are supported, environmental influences on children’s social competence are larger, perhaps because support helps parents provide a broadly promotive environment. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2017

Likvärdigheten i den svenska skolan har på senare år försämrats. Social och emotionell kompetens har visat sig ha stor betydelse för skolframgång, psykisk hälsa och förekomst av problembeteenden och interventioner som stärker dessa kan vara ett sätt att åtgärda skolans problem. För utvärdering av sådana interventioner behövs validerade mätinstrument. Denna studies syfte var att undersöka validiteten hos Social Competence Scale för observatörer (SCO). Skalan används vid en standardiserad leksituation för att skatta barns sociala och emotionella kompetens. En explorativ faktoranalys genomfördes på SCO, samt korrelationer med två kriteriemått, utifrån hypotesen att finna positiva korrelationer. Dessa två var Social Competence Scale för lärare, en lärarenkät som ligger till grund för SCO, och Assessment of Childrens Emotions, en uppgift där barn ska identifiera känslor utifrån ansiktsbilder. I likhet med tidigare analyser av instrumentet fann studien en faktorstruktur med en faktor. Inga signifikanta korrelationer mellan SCO och de två kriteriemåtten erhölls. Skalan behöver studeras vidare för validering. Bortfall och förändringar i skalans administration under datainsamlingen gör att resultaten bör tolkas försiktigt.

This study investigated the links between the family and peer systems by examining whether mothers ' beliefs about social skills and management practices of peer interactions were related to their children ' s social relations with peers . The sample was comprised of 185 mothers of preschool children , ranging in age from 44 to 81 months , who resided in Seoul , Korea. Children of the participating mothers were enrolled in center- based preschool programs. Mothers were asked to complete the Maternal Beliefs Scale, the Mothers ' Management Strategies Scale, and demographic measures. Using the Child Behavior Scale, teachers rated the social competence of each child whose mother returned a set of questionnaires. The findings suggested that most Korean mothers in this sample highly rated the importance of preschoolers' social development. They believed that social skills were amenable to modification , rather than innate. Whereas mothers in this study were frequently involved in direct or indirect monitoring of children ' s social activities, they infrequently engaged in direct management of peer relationships. The results also showed that mothers who assigned greater importance to social skills and believed that the social skills of their children could be obtained by direct parental teaching were more likely to manage their children ' s social activities. In addition , mothers who made more efforts to enhance their children ' s social skills were more likely to have socially competent children with peers. Additionally , younger mothers attached greater importance to social skills than older mothers and were more likely to attribute the experience factor to these skills. Employed mothers , as compared to nonemployed mothers , also made more external attributions for the development of social skills.

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine adult attachment patterns and ethnic experience and the relationship on social competence. There are limited studies that have examined the differences among racially and ethnically diverse populations. A total of 60 university undergraduate students completed the Relationship Questionnaire, Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire, Measure of Adolescent Hetersocial Competence, and the Scale of Ethnic Experience. Results showed that some differences existed between the two groups in terms of attachment patterns. Ethnic identity was related to social competence with both groups. It is suggested that ethnic experience may be useful for studying social competence.

No description available.

No description available.

One of the fundamental concerns of developmental psychology is the nature of continuity and change across development. The present study investigated the continuity of social competence across developmental periods, paying special attention to the transition from middle childhood to adolescence. Using a birth cohort of youths (277 males, 315 females), I examined the stability of social competence across developmental periods, assessed the relation between quality of early parenting and later competence, and tested how timing of pubertal maturation and school transition impact the stability of social competence, using both variable-centered and person-centered analyses. It was expected that social competence would be highly stable across development, but less stable across the transition to adolescence, and that higher quality parenting would predict greater competence among males and females. Furthermore, I expected that pubertal maturation and school transition would deflect trajectories of social competence over time, accentuating individual differences (e.g., socially competent youths would become more competent, whereas incompetent youths would become less competent). As expected, the nature of social competence was fairly stable from early childhood to adolescence, although there is evidence that social competence is less stable as youth transition from early childhood to middle childhood and from middle childhood to adolescence. Moreover, individuals with warm parenting evinced greater social competence across time. Consistent with my hypothesis, off-time pubertal maturation and school transition accentuated individual differences in social competence, increasing social competence among more competent youths, and further diminishing social competence among less competent youths. Finally, I find evidence that experiencing both off-time pubertal maturation and a school transition simultaneously incurred more risk for females, particularly among less competent females, than experiencing only off-time maturation or a school transition. / Psychology

Parents teach their children about emotions through a process called emotion socialization and one way that they can do so is through shared discussions about emotions. Research in developmental psychology indicates that parental emotion socialization strategies through discourse such as elaboration and labels and explanations are related to children's emotion understanding and social competence. In the current study, I apply the concept of indirect communication, which has been used in linguistics since the 1970s, to parental emotion socialization with preschool-age children (n= 55; 31 females, 24 males). I define indirect communication as parental speech in which the form and function of a subject-verb phrase do not match and examined relations of parental indirect communication to the previously established strategies in developmental psychology of elaboration and use of labels and explanations. To understand whether this type of communication may influence children's development, I also examined relations of indirect communication to preschoolers' emotion understanding and social competence. Results indicate that parental indirect communication during positive events was related to parental explanations during negative events. Parental indirect communication did not significantly predict children's emotion understanding or social competence, but showed a trend for the association between indirect communication during negative event discussions and children's nonstereotypical emotion understanding. However, the direction for this association was opposite than hypothesized. These results do not suggest consistency of indirect communication across positive and negative event discussions as an emotion socialization strategy. / Master of Science

Children with Asperger syndrome and high functioning autism typically experience difficulty with social interaction and social communication, hence the development of social competence is important to promote social inclusion. A quasi-experimental baseline design was employed to measure changes in social competence following participation in Lego therapy. Fourteen children with Asperger syndrome participated in an eight week Lego therapy intervention in nine schools. Social competence was measured through observations of social interaction on the school playground and adaptive socialisation and communication. Statistically significant increases were observed in adaptive socialisation and play following participation in Lego Therapy. No significant differences were found in communication, median duration of interactions or frequency of self-initiated social interactions. Measures of social competence were completed again following a period without intervention, to establish whether increases in social competence were sustained. Aspects of social competence decreased following a period without intervention, however, decreases were not significant. Programme fidelity was measured by adherence to fundamental aspects of the intervention and a measure of inter-rater reliability. Adherence ranged between 63-100% for aspects of the intervention, and between 82-97% for schools delivering the intervention. Implications for practice were highlighted, and included the need to encourage generalisation of skills from Lego therapy into the wider school environment, and a need for on-going support for school staff when the intervention is delivered in schools. Alternative ways of promoting social competence within an inclusive school environment were discussed.