Links between school adjustment indicators and social competence of Lithuanian first graders

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to assess the links between social competence and school adjustment indicators, including academic achievement, school anxiety, child-teacher relationship, and involvement in bullying. Subjects: Subjects in the present study were 408 first grade pupils (183 boys and 225 girls) attending 14 schools in the second largest city of Lithuania. Measures: Social competence was assessed using Elementary School Social Competence Scale (ESSCS) developed for the present study and consisting of subscales measuring three aspects of social competence: communication, ability to take directions, and impulse control. School adjustment indicators included academic achievement, involvement in bullying, school anxiety and child-teacher relationship quality. Results: Results of the study revealed that the communication competence negatively correlated with both Social Anxiety (r=-0.43, p<0.01) and the General Anxiety (r=-0.37, p<0.01) subscales of the School Anxiety Scale. Similar links were found in relation to the ability to take directions (r=-0.14, p<0.01 and r=-0.37, p<0.01, respectively). In contrast, impulse control had positive correlation with social anxiety (r=0.18, p<0.01) and negative with general anxiety (r= -0.18, p<0.01). Social competence was also moderately linked to child-teacher relationship quality. The communication competence was linked to lower child-teacher conflict (r=0.36, p<0.01) and higher closeness (r=0.39, p<0.01). Similar relationships were obtained for both ability to take directions (r=0.48, p<0.01 and r=0.23, p<0.01, respectively) and impulse control (r=0.47, p<0.01 and r=0.17, p<0.01, respectively). On the other hand, involvement in bullying was linked only to ability to take directions and impulse control. The ability to take directions was negatively linked to both victim behavior (r=-0.17, p<0.01) and bully behavior (r=-0.16, p<0.01). [...]