Preliminary communication
Examination of children's social skills in elementary school considering their age and gender
Alma Malkić Aličković
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; University of Tuzla, Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
Social skills are the result of one’s development in different social groups, mainly in family, then in school and other social contexts in which individual affirms itself throughout life. Individuals with social skills can be recognized for their success in establishing and maintaining positive interpersonal relations, that are the foundation for exercising human’s numerous needs and potentials. Research results whose goal was to investigate social skills of elementary school students considering their age and gender can be found in this paper. Sample structure includes 506 pupils, 225 girls and 281 boys, ages 11 to 14. Social Skills Inventory (Riggio and Throckmorton, 1986) and Socio economic survey questionnaire have been used for data collection. The Social Skills Inventory consists of 6 subscales divided in 2 areas: emotional-nonverbal and social-verbal, and it enables insight into examinee’s verbal and non-verbal social skills. The results lead to conclusion that girls, compared to boys, manifest higher level of emotional development and social sensitivity, as well as emotional expresiveness, and that fifth-grade pupils have higher level of social skills development when compared to sixth, seventh and eighth graders in elementary school. The results offer a starting point for further research of socio-emotional development in elementary schools to determine causes for existing condition and to contribute to improvement of this aspect of development, especially in school context.
Keywords
socially competent beahviour; social skills dimension; verbal social skills; nonverbal social skills
Hrčak ID:
193280
URI
Publication date:
21.9.2017.
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