Models of emotion skills and social competence in the Head Start classroom

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Early Education and Development

Publication Date

7-1-2010

Abstract

Research Findings: Fostering the social competence of at-risk preschoolers would be facilitated by knowing which of children's emotion skills are most salient to social outcomes. We examined the emotion skills and social competence of 44 children enrolled in a Head Start program. Emotion skills were examined in terms of children's emotional lability and emotion regulation, whereas social competence was measured in terms of three aspects of preschoolers' social relationships: social skills, student-teacher relationships, and peer likeability. Although emotion regulation emerged as an important predictor for social skills and positive relationships with teachers, emotional lability was a significant predictor of student-teacher conflict and peer likeability. In fact, emotional lability mediated the relation between student-teacher conflict and peer likeability. Practice or Policy: The findings are discussed in terms of the complex associations between children's emotion skills and early social relationships. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Volume

21

Issue

4

First Page

495

Last Page

516

DOI

10.1080/10409280902895097

ISSN

10409289

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