Social Skills in Children at Home and in Preschool

Abstract

Preschool age is a crucial period for social development. Social skills acquired during this period are the basis for future life’s success. This study aimed to investigate the level of social skills in preschool children at home and in preschool and to examine the association between children’s social skills and environmental and cultural backgrounds. A cross-sectional study using a multistage cluster sampling method was conducted on 546 children studying in the preschool centers of an urban area of Iran. Data were collected through demographic and social skill questionnaires from parents and teachers. Our findings showed that the social skills of girls were more than those of boys at home. Further, the majority of children had a moderate level of social skills from the parents’ and teachers’ perspectives. There was a modest parent–teacher agreement in most domains of social skills. Moreover, a statistically significant association was reported between children’s social skill domains and the child’s birth rank, father’s age, father’s job, teacher’s age, teacher’s education, teacher’s experience, and preschool classroom in terms of the numbers of children and the type of classroom. Accordingly, the risk of problems with social skills was reported to be relatively low. Therefore, more attention should be given to the family status and the teacher’s and preschool center’s characteristics to improve social skills in children.

Parental Socialization and Its Impact across the Lifespan

“…The cultural context where socialization occurs seems to be decisive in the relationship between parental socialization styles and the children’s pattern of competence and adjustment. Future studies should examine the most appropriate parental strategy to socialize children considering families from different ethnic and cultural contexts [ 118 , 119 , 120 , 121 ], as well as different individual characteristics of the children [ 122 , 123 ].…”

Dependents as Signals of Mate Value: Long-term Mating Strategy Predicts Displays on Online Dating Profiles for Men

“…This can occur because children and canine pets may indicate high financial and social status, as well as caring abilities (Beverland et al, 2008 ; Kemkes, 2008 ; Mosteller, 2008 ; Serpell & Paul, 2011 ; Tifferet et al, 2013 ). In addition, children and canine pets require significant material investment (Corso, 2007 ; Mosteller, 2008 ; Prendergast & Wong, 2003 ) and are highly social beings (Maleki et al, 2019 ; Zasloff, 1996 ). Other types of pets (such as felines) require less care and social interaction (Gray et al, 2015 ; Kogan & Volsche, 2020 ; Zasloff, 1996 ), and thus might not be as strong a signal of male investment.…”

Depressive Symptomatology and Parenting Stress: Influence on the Social-Emotional Development of Pre-Schoolers in Chile

“…Squires [ 12 ] holds that both skills tend to overlap and are activated in relevant situations of the child’s life. Farkas et al [ 15 ] emphasize that young children with an adequate social and emotional development express their emotions appropriately, communicate well with their peers [ 16 , 17 ], and are perceived more positively by their parents [ 18 , 19 ]. In contrast, children with certain difficulties in these areas tend to display disruptive behaviours from an early age onwards, throw tantrums more frequently, and experience negative parent–child communication issues.…”