| 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). [...] |
