Social competence in early childhood: An empirical validation of the SOCIAL model

Social skills are the basis of human interactions and functioning in society. Social competence (SC) is thought to evolve gradually during childhood and adolescence via the interplay of multiple factors. In particular, the early years of life are marked by the emergence of basic social abilities and constitute the foundation for successful social development. The biopsychosocial SOcio-Cognitive Integration of Abilities modeL (SOCIAL) posits that internal (child-based), external (environment), and cognitive factors are critical to SC in the context of normal brain maturation; but this has yet to be shown empirically and comprehensively. This study tested the SOCIAL model in a sample of typically developing preschool children. Parents of 103 children (M = 67.59 months, SD = 11.65) completed questionnaires and children underwent neuropsychological assessment of executive functioning (EF), communication skills and social cognition. Three-step hierarchical regression analyses (1) Internal factors, 2) External factors, 3) Cognitive factors) confirmed that each step of the regression model significantly predicted SC. In the final model, general cognitive and socio-cognitive factors significantly predicted SC above and beyond internal and external factors: children with lower temperamental negative affect and less parent-reported executive dysfunction, as well as better non-verbal communication and theory of mind had better SC. Our findings support the conceptual SOCIAL model, and highlight the importance of internal, external, and cognitive factors for SC in the preschool years. Identification of factors associated with early social development can inform both normative and clinical approaches to identifying intervention loci and optimizing SC in those at risk for maladaptive social functioning.     

Exploring Processes in Day-to-Day Parent–Adolescent Conflict and Angry Mood: Evidence for Circular Causality

Parent–adolescent conflict has been studied both as a precursor of long-term macrolevel developmental risks and as an outcome of microlevel, moment-to-moment interaction patterns. However, the family-level processes underlying the maintenance or regulation of conflict in daily life are largely overlooked. A meso-level understanding of parent–adolescent conflict offers important practical insights that have direct implications for interventions. The present study explores day-to-day reciprocal processes and carryover in parents’ and adolescents’ experiences of anger and conflict. Daily diary data provided by parent–adolescent dyads (N = 151) from two-caregiver households (adolescents: 61.59% female, mean age = 14.60 years) over 21 days were examined using a multivariate Poisson multilevel model to evaluate the circular causality principle in parents’ and adolescents’ daily conflict and anger. Findings offer empirical support for the theory, suggesting that parents’ and adolescents’ anger and conflict exist together in a feedback loop wherein conflict is both a consequence of past anger and also an antecedent of future anger, both within and across persons. Increased understanding of the daily interaction patterns and maintenance of parent–adolescent conflict can guide more informed, targeted, and well-timed interventions intended to ameliorate the consequences of problematic parent–adolescent conflict sequences.