The ethnic specificity of mental representation and social emotional competence in children

Abstract

Cultural influences on socially competent behavior are well known and gain value during the on-going globalization. This study compared socially competent behavior of children with different migration backgrounds as well as different native countries. 109 Children were selected from kindergartens (age 5–6 years) in Austria and in US with either Asian or Hispanic migration background. Social emotional competence was measured using story-completion-technique for a video-taped doll-play-interview and coded concerning socially competent behavior. The analyses showed significant differences in social emotional competence between the immigration backgrounds, nationalities, and gender in all of the categories coded during the interview.