Browsing by Subject "Social competence"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    The impact of executive function and emotional control and understanding on the behavioral functioning and academic achievement of children living in emergency homeless shelters.
    (2012-08) LaFavor, Theresa L.
    This study examined the impact of executive function (EF) and emotional control and understanding on the behavioral functioning and academic achievement of 86 homeless children, ages 9 to 11. Executive function skills were assessed using parent report, child's performance on four standard behavioral tasks, and teacher report. Emotional control was assessed using parent report on standard measures of emotion regulation. Emotional understanding was assessed using child performance on a standard measure of affect recognition. Risk and adversity were assessed using parent report on widely used measures of sociodemographic variables, and negative and stressful life events. Indices of behavioral functioning included parent and teacher report of externalizing and internalizing problems. Indices of academic achievement included child's performance on standard measures of mathematical operations and word reading. Results indicate that executive function may be an important marker of academic achievement and behavioral functioning. Performance on executive function tasks predicted academic achievement, and parent reports of internalizing behaviors. Executive function emerged a unique predictor above and beyond children's general intelligence, a key correlate of achievement and behavioral functioning among both low and high risk samples. The effects of risk and adversity, specifically negative and stressful events experienced in the past 12 months, emerged as a unique predictor of achievement and behavioral functioning. Children who experienced more recent negative and stressful life events had lower academic achievement and higher parent reported externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Emotional control emerged as a unique predictor of academic achievement, above and beyond executive function and children's intelligence, suggesting that aspects of emotion regulation are important for academic functioning and success. Implications of these findings are discussed with relation to future intervention and the potential of EF as a focus of intervention.
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    Interpretation of ambiguous emotional cues of children with developmental cognitive disabilities and its relation to their social skills.
    (2011-05) Lee, Heeyeon
    This study examined the extent to which ambiguous facial emotion identification abilities and emotional negativity of children with mild developmental cognitive disabilities (DCD) correlated with their social skills and problem behaviors as rated by their teachers and parents. The study also investigated other contributing factors to the children's emotion identification skills including IQ, age, gender, and the level of inclusion. Participants were 22 children identified with mild DCD between the ages of eight to eleven years old, 22 teachers, and 17 parents. Participants' facial emotion identification abilities were measured by the computer version of the Penn Emotion Recognition Test (ER-40). Participants' emotional negativity was measured by (1) neutral emotions identification in the ER-40 and by (2) negative intent attributions in the Intent Attribution and Feelings of Distress Test (ATT). Participants' social skills and problem behaviors were measured by parents' and teachers' ratings of the Social Skills Ratings System (SSRS) checklist. The results indicated that participants' ambiguous emotion identification abilities were not associated with their social skills and problem behaviors. However, a significant association was observed between participants' emotional negativity measured by the ER-40 neutral expressions and their social skills rated by their teachers. Among various contributing factors to participants' emotion identification abilities, type and intensity of emotions and IQ scores were significantly correlated with their emotion identification abilities. This study had a small sample size, so generalization of the findings is limited. Further study needs to be directed at replication of this study using a larger sample of children with mild DCD.
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    Investigating social competence in students with high intelligence
    (2013-05) Schirvar, Wendi Margaret
    Social competence is vital for healthy development (Canto-Sperber & Dupuy, 2001; Spence, Barrett & Tuner, 2003). Beginning in childhood and heavily influenced by culture, social competence develops as we combine personal and environmental resources for positive social outcomes and includes the absence of negative behaviors alongside the presence of positive behaviors (Bierman & Welsh, 2008; Davidson, 2001). Social competence is particularly demonstrated through our verbal and nonverbal communication skills with others: categorized as pragmatic language. Often introduced in kindergarten, these skills include how to greet others, take turns, make requests, interpret cues and respond appropriately to others. Intellectual functioning has a role in social competence. While individuals may have the capacity to use long complex sentences with correct grammar, if they have not mastered the rules for social language their ability to communicate may be impaired. Most studies of the psychological characteristics of students with high intelligence have not demonstrated clinical symptoms beyond those of the general population, yet the absence of significant differences in clinical symptoms are often equated to having social competence (Lehman & Erdwins, 1985; Neihart, Reis, Robinson, & Moon, 2002; Rimm, 1995; Robinson, Lanzi, Weinberg, Ramey, & Ramey, 2002; Rose-Krasner, 2006). While the connection between communication skills and social competence is known for the general population and for students with diagnosed social difficulties, little is known about either the social competence of students with high intelligence, or the role pragmatic language skills have in their observed social competence (Merrell, Merz, Johnson, & Ring, 1992). This study replicates earlier research by affirming a negative relationship between high intelligence and psychopathology and poor social competence, yet goes beyond mere quantification of these characteristics to investigate the presence of underlying social language skills and association between pragmatic language and social competence. Multisource indices of social competence, clinical pathology and pragmatic language were gathered on a sample of 79 children, aged 7–10 years with intelligence quotient scores above 130 (FSIQ > 130). Parents report lower incidence of clinically defined internalizing, externalizing and total problems for these students when compared to the general population. While students’ scores on the measure of pragmatic language did not predict their scores on the measure of social competence, they did demonstrate less frequency of clinical scores on pragmatic language than the general population and teachers report them as being more adjusted to school. This study contributes significantly to the literature by providing objective evidence of psychopathology, social competence and pragmatic language for a quantifiable sample of students with high intelligence. Methodological considerations are discussed, as are implications for further research.