5.2

Question 1

Social competence is a dynamical construct, that

Answer 1

involves both individual characteristics and behavioral patterns; it is a key indicator if positive development. Aspects of social competence include skills useful in social situations, status with peers, ability to form and maintain positive friendships

Question 2

Emotional regulation

Answer 2

All interpersonal interactions involve emotions and their regulation. The ability to regulate emotional arousal underlies socially appropriate behavior. Emotion regulation includes both automatic and effortful processes that work together to maintain and modulate emotional expression and experience. Regulatory processes function at a biological, behavioral and environmental level. Integrated and reciprocal relations across these levels account for the regulation of emotions and affect children’s ability to attend to social cues, generate increasingly complex social responses and improve overall social functioning. Children found to engage in strong emotional displays are more likely to be rejected by peers than those who show regulatory competency.

Question 3

It has been proposed that associations between dimensions of social competence and regulatory abilities are transactional in nature, such that

Answer 3

emotion regulation skills not only shape social interactions and relationships but also emerge from these dimensions of social competence.

Question 4

Social experiences are thought of being organized into levels of complexity

Answer 4

1) individual level: most basic, includes characteristics of the child ( personality, cognition, competencies)
2) interaction: time-limited series of exchanges between individuals.
3) relationships.
4) groups: most complex level, composed of networks of relationships defined by shared norms and environments.

Question 5

Gains in emotion regulation from early through middle childhood have been linked

Answer 5

with social skills, peer group acceptance and friendship quality. Children who are more competent in modulating their emotional reactions are better able to use their social skills. Children’s emotion regulation predicts concurrent and future friendship quality.

Question 6

The developmental cascades framework is based on theoretical approaches that

Answer 6

emphasize the complexity of individual development across time and contexts and the interplay of developmental processes across multiple levels. The model is based in the expectation that development in one domain will shape development in other domains in a progressive cascade. Emotion regulation and social competence dimensions are related to subsequent problem behaviors, but few associations were found among the emotional and social constructs.

Question 7

The authors hypothesized that emotion regulation would have unique positive associations with each of the social competence dimensions. Additionally they proposed two models representing the transactional nature of the links between emotions regulation and social competence (and a third):

Answer 7

1) ability to regulate emotion influences dimensions of social competence across time and dimensions of social competence influence emotion regulation abilities.
2) developmental cascade model: children’s ability to regulate emotions at age 5 are associated with development in social skills to age 7. Later there are more indidrect effects.
3) combination if the two models.

Question 8

The present study examined a longitudinal model in which children’s ability to regulate emotion is viewed as laying the foundation for the devel- opment of three specific dimensions of social competence:
(Also further findings)

Answer 8

• Social skills, peer group acceptance, and friendship quality.
• Emotion regulation did indeed predict later social competence.
• Also early social skills demonstrated cascading effect on later peer group acceptance, friendship quality and emotion regulation.
• Social skills at age 7 to be the key mechanism through which children’s earlier abilities to regulate emotions shaped longer term social–emotional development.
• Evidence for an independent nature of emotional an social development with reciprocal effects.

Question 9

Ability to regulate emotions effectively affords childrens

Answer 9

increased oppurtunities to participate actively and positively in social settings -> promotes earlie development od more advanced social skills -> social skills later equip children to engage in positive interactions with peers -> translates to greater peer group acceptance and higher friendship quality. The model, thus demonstrates a snowballing effect common to cascade models.

Question 10

Conclusion

Answer 10

• Children’s ability to regulate emotions underlies the development of three dimensions of social competence (social skills, peer group acceptance, and friendship quality)
• and in turn children’s social skills at age 7 are related to developments in peer group acceptance, friendship quality and emotion regulation at age 10.