Poster #98 - Children’s Social Problem Solving in Response to a Violation of Social Norms

• In Event: Poster Session 10

Abstract

In ambiguous interpersonal situations, children can engage in social problem solving behaviors to acquire more information. The process of noticing when an interpersonal problem arises, generating possible solutions to the problem, implementing and evaluating the effectiveness of those solutions, and identifying when the problem has been resolved may be especially challenging for socially withdrawn children. Children who avoid social interaction may either be shy (characterized by a desire to socially connect with others but a lack of skill to do so) or socially disinterested (characterized by a lack of motivation to socially connect, despite having the skills to do so). This study aims to investigate how age and differing levels of social motivation relate to children’s social problem solving behaviors in an ambiguous social situation. A diverse sample of 184 children, ages 3 -11 (M = 7.72 years; 51% female) interacted with an unfamiliar experimenter who wore a full-face mask. The experimenter initially hid from the child, but once in view, they stood unmoving and silent, largely ignoring the child’s social bids for 1m. This abnormal behavior constituted a social norm violation, as an adult would not normally hide or ignore a child. Therefore, the social norm violation serves as a social problem that children were ostensibly motivated to try to solve. Expressed positive affect (e.g., smiling), speech (e.g., asking “What are you doing?”), laughter, and approach (e.g., walking toward the masked experimenter) behaviors were coded to index social problem-solving. Latency was calculated as how long in seconds it took children to initiate their first social problem solving behavior. Parents completed questionnaires including the Child Social Preferences Scale, which assesses shyness and social disinterest. Children’s proportion of time engaging in each social problem-solving behavior was: expressed positive affect (59%), approach behavior (53%), speech (28%), and laughing (14%). Linear regression revealed that age was negatively related to social problem solving latency (B=-3.918, p < 0.01) such that children were faster to engage in problem-solving with increasing age. The model was significant (R2 =[0.328], F(1,182)=[21.985], p<0.01), but neither shyness (B=[0.439], p=[0.239]) nor social disinterest (B=[0.761], p=[0.260]) were related to latency. For individual social problem solving behaviors, age was positively correlated with positive affect (r(182)=.384, p<.001) and laughter (r(182) =.251, p=.001). Shyness was negatively correlated with speech (r(182)= -.174, p=.018), whereas social disinterest was positively correlated with speech (r(182) =.156 p =.035). These findings suggest that lived experience and differing social motivations may be important determinants of children’s ability to quickly attempt to remedy social problems. Social withdrawal is not often parsed apart into shyness and social disinterest despite the differing social motivations they reflect. These motivations should continue to be examined outside of the umbrella of social withdrawal, because they may reveal important nuances in children’s social problem solving abilities, such as how children utilize speech.

Authors

• Kasey N Pankratz, University of California - Riverside
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth L Davis, University of California - Riverside