Social Interaction, Social Competence, and Friendship in Children

Abstract

The relationship between social skills, social interaction, and popularity was examined. The subjects were 198 children in third and fourth grades in middle- and low-income schools. The relationships between number of friends, socioeconomic status, and grade level were studied in a 2 times 2 times 2 factorial design with 2 sets of dependent measures: (1) social skills were assessed by an experimenter testing each child individually on a set of tasks which included measures of the ability to label emotions in facial expressions, knowledge of how to make friends, giving help, and role-taking ability; and (2) social interaction in the classroom was assessed using a naturalistic observational system. Popular and unpopular children differed in their knowledge of how to make friends and on the referential-communication task. In the classroom, popular children distributed and received more positive reinforcement than unpopular children and spent less time daydreaming. Both grade and social class factors were significant. However, different patterns of results contributed to the main effect of friends and the grade-level main effect. The importance of assessing social skills which are first validated by reference to a criterion such as sociometric position was noted.

Social Behavior and Skills in Children

“…Friendship skills included the following sequence: (a) greeting, (b) asking for and giving information, (c) extending an offer of inclusion, and (d) effective leave-taking. These skills were found in a previous study to discriminate well-accepted from poorly accepted children (Gottman, Gonso, & Rasmussen, 1975). Referential communication skills, in which children were taught to take the listener's perspective, were also taught.…”

“…Sociometric methods may be used and can include peer (or teacher) nominations, ratings, and rankings. Sociometric methods such as the Revised Class Play , Three Best Friends (Gottman, Gonso, & Rasmussen, 1975), and Like Rating Scale (Asher, Singleton, Tinsley, & Hymel, 1979) have been used to assess social functioning in children with a wide variety of chronic conditions. In the Revised Class Play, the student (or teacher) assigns students to roles in an imaginary play.…”

Teacher-Child Interactions and Children’s Locus of Control Tendencies

“…The children's observed behaviors included the following: object-involved, alone and not involved, teacher interaction, and peer interaction (adapted from Gottman, Gonzo, & Rasmussen, 1975). The observed responses of teachers adapted from Fagot (1973) included the following: directing the child, commenting favorably, responding to questions, asking questions, giving information, giving comfort, involving children in activity.…”

The Fast Track to Success

“…Regularly compliments others. component of students' overall social skills and students' methods of coping with stress and conflict in school impact their relationships with both teachers and peers (Gottman, Gonso, & Rasmussen, 1975;McGinnis & Goldstein, 1984).…”