Longitudinal Associations between Social Competence and Language and Pre-literacy Skills

• In Event: 1-089 - The integration of self-regulation and other school-related competencies in early and long-term educational success

Integrative Statement

Introduction: A conceptual model of school readiness identifies both academic and social competence as important determinants of children’s functioning at school entry (Blair, 2002). Social competence is a multidimensional construct that refers to children’s positive peer interactions (Rubin et al., 2006), emotional understanding and emotional self-regulation (Denham, 2006; Rhoades et al., 2011) and adaptive behaviours in different social settings (Brophy-Herb et al., 2007; Yates et al., 2008). Although the interrelatedness between early language and literacy skills and social competence is acknowledged in the literature (Sparapani et al., 2018), the pattern of associations is debated (Trzesniewski et al., 2006). Causal relations can be social competence-driven, language and literacy skills-driven or reciprocal (see Trzesniewski et al., 2006). To date, however, only a few longitudinal studies have investigated bidirectional relations to discover how social competence and language and literacy skills influence and are influenced by one another (e.g., Sparapani et al., 2018; Trzesniewski et al., 2006).
Consequently, the present study aimed to investigate the bidirectional associations between social competence, pre-literacy skills and receptive vocabulary across a one-year period during which children were measured three times: fall (T1) and spring (T2) of kindergarten, and fall (T3) term of grade 1. A cross-lagged design was used to test whether a bidirectional model would best represent the associations between social and language and pre-literacy skills, assuming that social competence would contribute to improvements in later language and pre-literacy skills, and vice versa.
Method: The participants were 186 Finnish children (50% boys; Mage = 73.51 months, SD = 3.56 at wave 1). Teachers rated children’s social competence three times using the Multisource Assessment of Social Competence Scale (MASCS; Junttila et al., 2006), which produced sum scores for cooperating skills, empathy, impulsivity and disruptiveness. Children were tested by trained investigators on their pre-literacy skills (phonological awareness and letter knowledge; ARMI test, 2006) and receptive vocabulary (PPVT-R, Form L).
The longitudinal path analyses were conducted with Mplus statistical package. Four different models (stability model, social competence-driven model, language and literacy-driven model, and bidirectional model) were compared to find out the best-fitting model to the data. Multiple-group models were conducted to investigate whether the associations are similar in both genders. Parental education, child’s age and time elapsed between the measurement points were used as control variables in the analyses.
Results/discussion: The findings revealed that the pattern of associations differed depending on the component of social competence. For empathy and cooperating skills, the bidirectional model was supported by the data, whereas the language and pre-literacy-driven model was a better indicator of impulsivity and disruptiveness. Bidirectional associations between vocabulary and prosocial skills were found in transition from kindergarten to primary school (see Figure 1). Second, some evidence was found for gender-specific patterns in the associations between social competence and language and pre-literacy skills. Teacher training may help teachers understand the construct and importance of social-emotional development in relation to children’s language and pre-literacy skills.

Authors

• Eija Pakarinen, University of Jyvaskyla
  Presenting Author

• Antje von Suchodoletz, New York University Abu Dhabi
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jenni Salminen, University of Jyvaskyla
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen, University of Jyvaskyla
  Non-Presenting Author