TITLE:
Influence of Age and Gender in Acquiring Social Skills in Portuguese Preschool Education
AUTHORS:
Rosa Maria Silva Gomes, Anabela Sousa Pereira
KEYWORDS:
Social Skills; Problem Behavior; Child Psychology; Preschool Education; Education Psychology
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.2,
February
26,
2014
ABSTRACT:
The specificity
of educational contexts as mediators of social development through positive
interactions is critical to children’s involvement in the kindergarten and
therefore for their holistic development. The qualities of teacher-child
interactions enhance the child’s self-esteem and autonomy, promoting peer acceptance
and providing a successful learning experience. The purpose of this study was
to investigate whether the characteristic of gender and age are related to the
acquisition of social skills of children attending kindergarten in a
portuguese-speaking environment. The sample is composed of 581 children, age
from 2 to 7 years old, who attended preschool education on average 18 months
ago. Social Skills subscale (EAS) and Behavior Problems (EPC) was applied to
the “Behavioral Scale for Preschool-PKBSpt” (Gomes & Pereira, 2012),
Portuguese version of PKBS-2 (Merrell, 2002), Likert-type, four response
levels, which seeks to assess the social and emotional skills, and behavior
problems in early childhood, with the participation of educators. The
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 17.0 for Windows. The
main results show that there are gender differences in the level of social
skills. The girls reveal behaviors based on Social Cooperation and Social
Interaction. The boys show Attention Problems/Overactive and Antisocial
Behavior/Aggressive. Older children have the highest average level Social
Cooperation and Social Independence. In the dimensions of behavior problems,
the youngest children (3 and 4 years) had higher mean values, either in the
factor Attention Problem/Overactive or the Antisocial/Aggressive. Older
children (6 years old) had statistically significant differences in the
problems of the type Social Withdrawal and Anxiety-Somatic problems. The child’s gender and age variables are important factors and should be
included in educational practices, taking into account the development of
social skills of children attending in preschool. Promoting articulated and
differentiated development can prevent maladaptive behaviors in young adults.
Finally thoughts are given on the implications of this study in the level of
children’s involvement within their educational contexts.