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New directions in social competence research: : examining developmental trajectories and language minority populations

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Research regarding social competence is growing rapidly, but there remain a few aspects of social development that merit more attention. The presented pair of studies were planned to address two such areas in the social development literature, specifically the longitudinal trajectories of social competence and the role of social competence…

Research regarding social competence is growing rapidly, but there remain a few aspects of social development that merit more attention. The presented pair of studies were planned to address two such areas in the social development literature, specifically the longitudinal trajectories of social competence and the role of social competence in second language development in language minority (LM) students. The goal of the first investigation was to examine the developmental trends of interpersonal skills (IS) across the early childhood and elementary school years in a nationally representative, U.S. sample. The goal of the second study was to examine whether differing trajectories of IS development in language minority children in the U.S. were related to their language and literacy (LL) skills at grade 5. Both studies utilized data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 and modeled ratings of children's IS at five time points between fall of kindergarten and spring of fifth grade using latent class growth analyses in Mplus. In study 1, the best model was a quadratic two-class latent class growth analysis. Trajectory class 1 was a higher-level path with a marginally significant non-linear shape and class 2 was a primarily stable, moderate level path with a slight, non-significant increase over time. The same pattern of results emerged for both boys and girls separately as with the combined-sex model, and in all three final models the proportion of the sample in the higher-level class was greater than the moderate-level class. In study 2 a sample of U.S. children whose primary language at home was something other than English was utilized. LL at the start of kindergarten and sex were included as covariates and LL in fifth grade as a distal outcome. The best model for the data was a cubic two-class latent class growth analysis. Class 1 followed a higher-level path with small, incremental change over time and class 2 was a moderate-level path with greater undulation. Both covariates significantly predicted latent class and language and literacy scores at grade 5 differed significantly across classes.
ContributorsDiDonato, Alicia (Author) / Wilcox, M. Jeanne (Thesis advisor) / Bradley, Robert (Committee member) / Wilkens, Natalie (Committee member) / Valiente, Carlos (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Activative fathering, children's self-regulation, and social skills

Description
This study investigated father-child Activation Theory and the impact of activative fathering on children's dysregulation and social skills. The sample followed 145 families of typically developing children across ages 4 to 6. Fathering and mothering behaviors were coded via naturalistic observations at child age 4, children's dysregulation was coded during…

This study investigated father-child Activation Theory and the impact of activative fathering on children's dysregulation and social skills. The sample followed 145 families of typically developing children across ages 4 to 6. Fathering and mothering behaviors were coded via naturalistic observations at child age 4, children's dysregulation was coded during a laboratory puzzle task at age 5, and children's social skills were rated by parents and teachers at age 6. Results found support for a constellation of activative fathering behaviors unique to father-child interactions. Activative fathering, net of mothering behaviors, predicted decreased behavioral dysregulation one year later. Support was not found for moderation of the relation between activative fathering and children's dysregulation by paternal warmth, nor was support found for children's dysregulation as a mediator of the relation between activative fathering and children's social skills. These results suggest that parenting elements of father-child activation are unique to fathering and may be more broadly observable in naturalistic contexts not limited to play activities alone. Additionally, activative fathering appears to uniquely influence children's self-regulatory abilities above and beyond identical mothering behavior. In the present work, paternal warmth was not a necessary for activative fathering to positively contribute to children's regulatory abilities nor did children's dysregulation link activative fathering to social skills.
ContributorsStevenson, Matthew (Author) / Crnic, Keith (Thesis advisor) / Dishion, Thomas (Committee member) / Bradley, Robert (Committee member) / Eisenberg, Nancy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014