Greater Social Skills Research Articles

The contributions of grandparents to preadolescent grandchildren's social skills in rural Malaysia.

This study aimed to generate localized knowledge by investigating the perceptions and experiences of preadolescent grandchildren and grandparents regarding grandparenting and intergenerational interactions and how these processes were related to the social skills of preadolescents from three ethnic groups in Malaysia. Using a concurrent quantitative-qualitative mixed method research design, Chinese, Malay, and Indian preadolescents (N = 465; ages 9-12 years old; M = 10.27 years; SD = 1.03) from rural areas in Malaysia completed a self-administered quantitative survey; furthermore, 25 grandparents participated in one-on-one interviews. Survey findings showed that preadolescent grandchildren who reported higher grandparental warmth and support had greater social skills, mediated by positive grandparent-grandchildren (GP-GC) relationships. The GP-GC relationship and preadolescent social skills association was stronger for skipped generation compared to three-generation households. Interview findings revealed that grandparents expressed unconditional love and autonomy support in their grandparenting roles by guiding and encouraging their preadolescent grandchildren to make decisions. The GP-GC interactions served as a dynamic force in promoting preadolescents' social skills. By employing a decolonized approach and drawing on the lived experiences of grandparents from three ethnic backgrounds in rural Malaysia, the study provided an understanding of grandparenting practices and their general implications across the three ethnic groups. The interview responses highlighted both commonalities and specificities in grandparenting practices and relationship dynamics shaped by religious, class, and sociocultural dimensions in rural Malaysia.

The Assessment of Psychomotor Development in Full-Term Children at 12 Months of Age with Munich Functional Development Diagnostics Depending on the Feeding Method: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Psychomotor development is the most important outcome determining the proper growth and development of children. Optimizing childcare and modifying risk factors can provide the child with the best conditions to realize their developmental potential. The study aimed to assess the impact of the feeding method on the psychomotor development of full-term children at 12 months of age with Munich Functional Developmental Diagnostics (MFDD). Methods: The study included 242 full-term children who were examined at 12 months of age by a child neurologist using MFDD. The children were divided into two groups depending on the feeding method: breastfed (146) vs. formula-fed (93). We analysed selected obstetric and neonatal risk factors as well as MFDD scores within the groups. Results: The only axis on the MFDD scale on which we observed a difference between the groups was social skills. No differences were noted between the groups in the analysis of the gross and fine motor skills, with regard to perception or active and passive speech. Conclusions: The full-term, exclusively breastfed infants over their first 6 months of age or longer have greater social skills in comparison with the formula-fed infants when measured on the MFDD axis.

PEERS® for Preschoolers preliminary outcomes and predictors of treatment response.

PEERS® for Preschoolers (P4P) is a social skills group program for young autistic children and their caregivers, which provides everyday tools for interacting and communicating with others. Twenty-two caregiver-child dyads participated and completed pre-treatment, post-treatment, and follow-up measures (4-16 weeks after). Using single-subject analyses to examine social skills, 60% demonstrated post-treatment improvement, and 53.85% demonstrated follow-up improvement. Regarding a secondary outcome of behavioral difficulties, 33.33% demonstrated post-treatment reduction, and 7.69% demonstrated follow-up reduction. Using regressions, autistic traits predicted outcomes; fewer social communication difficulties predicted both greater social skills and fewer behavioral difficulties at post-treatment, while fewer repetitive behaviors predicted fewer post-treatment and follow-up behavioral difficulties. These results preliminarily demonstrate the benefits of P4P and how autistic traits may impact P4P outcomes.

The role of emotion regulation in alcohol use among adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the role of emotion regulation in the pathway to problematic alcohol use among adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), specifically investigating the total effect of emotion regulation on problematic alcohol use and the indirect effect of emotion regulation through social skills on problematic alcohol use within a 2-wave longitudinal design. The potential protective effect of parent knowledge of these effects was assessed. Participants were 149 adolescents with ADHD (mean [M] = 15.11 years old; 78% male), and approximately 19% endorsed problematic alcohol use at Time 2. Contrary to our hypothesis, emotion regulation was not associated with subsequent problematic alcohol use without social skills in the model, and parent knowledge did not moderate this pathway. The results supported an indirect effect of emotion regulation on problematic alcohol use via social skills, although the direction of this effect was unexpected. Greater emotion regulation skills were associated with greater social skills, which in turn were associated with a higher likelihood of problematic alcohol use. Parent knowledge was protective against this indirect effect, such that the indirect effect was only present in the context of low parent knowledge. The findings delineate the roles of risk and protective factors associated with the progression from experimentation to alcohol use disorder among adolescents with ADHD. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Co-Occurring Psychopathology Moderates Social Skills Improvement in a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Collaborative School-Home Intervention for Children with ADHD

ABSTRACT Objective Children with ADHD often exhibit marked impairment in their social skills, but evidence-based psychosocial interventions for ADHD have shown limited efficacy in remediating these deficits. Co-occurring psychopathology exacerbates social deficits in children with ADHD and is a plausible moderator of treatment response. To identify factors contributing to variable social skills treatment response, we examined co-occurring externalizing, depression, and anxiety symptoms as moderators of social skills outcomes in a randomized controlled trial of the Collaborative Life Skills (CLS) program, an evidence-based collaborative school-home ADHD intervention. Method Participants were 159 children with ADHD (M age = 8.35 years, 28.3% female) at 27 schools in an urban public school district. Twenty-three schools were randomly assigned to CLS or usual services, with an additional four schools assigned to Spanish-adapted CLS or usual services. Multi-informant measures of co-occurring psychopathology and social skills were collected at baseline and post-treatment. Results Parent-rated externalizing and depression symptoms moderated treatment effects on social skills, whereby higher symptomatology in each domain was unrelated to social skills improvement in the CLS group but predicted worsening social skills in response to usual services. In contrast, teacher-rated anxiety moderated treatment effects on social skills, whereby higher anxiety predicted greater social skills improvement in response to CLS but was unrelated to social skills outcomes following usual services. Conclusions Findings reflect novel evidence that child psychopathology domains exhibit unique moderating effects on social skills treatment response in children with ADHD. We discuss implications for optimizing evidence-based interventions to target social impairment in this population.

Streamlined Prevention and Early Intervention for Pediatric Anxiety Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

There is a need to optimize the fit between psychosocial interventions with known efficacy and the demands of real-word service delivery settings. However, adaptation of evidence-based interventions (EBI) raises questions about whether effectiveness can be retained. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluated a streamlined package of cognitive, behavior, and social skills training strategies known to prevent and reduce anxiety symptom and disorder escalation in youth. A total of 109 youth (Mage = 9.72; 68% girls; 54% Latinx) at risk based on high anxiety were randomized to the streamlined prevention and early intervention (SPEI) (n = 59) or control (n = 50) and were assessed at pretest, posttest, and 12-month follow-up. A main objective was to determine whether our redesign could be delivered by community providers, with acceptable levels of fidelity, quality, and impact. In terms of process evaluation results, there was high protocol fidelity, excellent clinical process skills, few protocol adaptations, and high satisfaction with the SPEI. In terms of outcomes, there were no significant main or moderated effects of the SPEI at the immediate posttest. However, at the follow-up, youth in the SPEI reported greater self-efficacy for managing anxiety-provoking situations, greater social skills, and fewer negative cognitive errors relative to controls. Collectively, findings suggest that the redesigned SPEI might be an attractive and efficient solution for service delivery settings.

Profiles of executive functions and social skills in the transition to school: A person‐centred approach

AbstractWhether a child is ready for school is of interest for different parties involved. With a person‐centred approach, the present study examined 123 kindergarteners (59 girls, 64 boys) regarding their early executive functions and social skills profiles. Children were 6–7 years of age at the first measurement point (M = 6; 6, SD = 4.22, range = 5; 8–7; 8). One year later, at the end of first grade, they were 7–8‐years old (M = 7; 6, SD = 4.11, range = 6; 9–8; 8). Four different profiles were identified. The profiles did not differ on demographic dimensions or socioeconomic status but appeared to be related to academic achievement and school adjustment at the end of the first grade 1 year later. Profiles with high executive functions showed the greatest predictive validity, independent of their social skills. However, greater social skills seemed to serve as a compensator in the profile with lower executive functions. The resulting profiles have theoretical and practical relevance, when discussing the question what a child needs to be “ready” for school.Highlights A person‐centered approach to children's school readiness with 123 kindergarteners. Low executive functions can partially be compensated with high social skills. This compensation was stronger for school adjustment than for academic achievement. Cognitive and social aspects of a child's development should be considered by teachers and practitioners.

Parent–child relationships and Chinese children's social adaptations: Gender difference in parent–child dyads

Based on data from 1,366 Chinese preschoolers aged 31–77 months from 62 preschools, this study compared differences among four parent–child dyads in parent–child relationships and the associations between parent–child relationships and children's social adaptations. According to the results, the same‐sex dyad and opposite‐sex dyad patterns were tested. The results showed the same‐sex dyad and opposite‐sex dyad patterns in parent–child closeness. Mother–daughter dyads had more closeness than mother–son dyads; father–daughter dyads had more closeness than father–son dyads. The results were more supportive of the same‐sex dyad pattern in the associations between parent–child relationships and social adaptations. Mother–child closeness predicted girls' greater social skills and fewer problem behaviors; father–child conflict predicted boys' worse social skills and greater problem behaviors.

Liderazgo e Inteligencia Emocional


 
 
 El Liderazgo e inteligencia emocional juega un papel central entre las interacciones de los actores y observadores de las organizaciones. No es sino en los últimos años que se ha despertado el creciente interés en el estudio de la inteligencia emocional por parte de las empresas. Este estudio presentará que la clave para el éxito en liderazgo son resultado de interacciones sociales y no únicamente temas de desempeño operativo, de aquí que se puede suponer que aquellos líderes con mayor desarrollo habilidades sociales y por ende mayor grado de inteligencia emocional podrán conducir de mejor manera a sus seguidores y a la organización a alcanzar sus objetivos
 
 

Predictores de respuestas psicológicas de duelo ante la pérdida de la salud

Un concepto relevante para el estudio del duelo ante la pérdida de salud es la resiliencia, la cual contribuye en la asimilación y recuperación frente a la pérdida, y en un mayor bienestar psicológico y físico. La resiliencia no se ha aplicado dentro del marco teórico de fases de duelo de Kübler-Ross. Así cabría preguntarse: ¿cómo se relaciona la resiliencia en el proceso de duelo ante la pérdida de la salud?, y ¿cómo influyen la resiliencia sobre las respuestas psicológicas de duelo frente a otras variables significativas como religiosidad, ingresos económicos y escolaridad? Para responder estas interrogantes se estudió la relación de las respuestas psicológicas de duelo ante la pérdida de la salud con la resiliencia, variables sociodemográficas y de religiosidad; asimismo, se especificó y contrastó un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales para predecir las respuestas psicológicas de duelo. Se llevó a cabo un estudio descriptivo-correlacional con diseño no experimental transversal en una muestra no probabilística de 120 mujeres mexicanas en tratamiento oncológico. Se aplicaron dos instrumentos de medición: la escala de Respuestas Psicológicas de Duelo ante la Pérdida de la Salud (RPD-PS-38) y la Escala de Resiliencia Mexicana (RESI-M). Se encontró que la resiliencia tuvo una mayor asociación con las respuestas psicológicas de duelo que con las variables sociodemográficas y la religiosidad. El modelo predictivo tuvo un buen ajuste a los datos, el primer factor de segundo orden (menor reacción de afecto negativo ante la enfermedad) fue predicho por mayor apoyo familiar, mayor frecuencia de asistencia a los servicios religiosos y mayor ingreso económico familiar; el segundo factor de segundo orden (actitud positiva ante la enfermedad con apoyo en creencias religiosas) fue predicho por mayor competencia social, mayor asistencia a los servicios religiosos, menor escolaridad e ingreso económico familiar, siendo los dos factores de segundo orden del duelo independientes entre sí. Se concluye que la resiliencia es una variable importante en el proceso de duelo; como también lo es la religiosidad, que está asociada con escolaridad e ingresos bajos. Se sugiere trabajar estos aspectos dentro de dinámicas de grupo para facilitar los procesos de duelo en mujeres en tratamiento oncológico.

The default mode of human brain function primes the intentional stance.

Humans readily adopt an intentional stance to other people, comprehending their behavior as guided by unobservable mental states such as belief, desire, and intention. We used fMRI in healthy adults to test the hypothesis that this stance is primed by the default mode of human brain function present when the mind is at rest. We report three findings that support this hypothesis. First, brain regions activated by actively adopting an intentional rather than nonintentional stance to a social stimulus were anatomically similar to those demonstrating default responses to fixation baseline in the same task. Second, moment-to-moment variation in default activity during fixation in the dorsomedial PFC was related to the ease with which participants applied an intentional--but not nonintentional--stance to a social stimulus presented moments later. Finally, individuals who showed stronger dorsomedial PFC activity at baseline in a separate task were generally more efficient when adopting the intentional stance and reported having greater social skills. These results identify a biological basis for the human tendency to adopt the intentional stance. More broadly, they suggest that the brain's default mode of function may have evolved, in part, as a response to life in a social world.

"Sitting Pretty: Attractiveness, Social Capital, and Success"

That attractive people enjoy relatively better outcomes in life compared to other people is well and widely documented. Explanations of how and why this occurs are fewer and tend to focus on the correlated human capital characteristics of attractive people— their greater confidence and social skill, for example. We draw on social capital theory from the sociology literature to propose that, instead of being attributable to solely to purely by individual differences, the success that flows to attractive actors comes through actors’ social capital—both perceived and real. Findings from three experiments establish that people’s schemas for attractiveness include beliefs about attractive people’s social capital. These perceptions encourage people to initiate ties with attractive individuals. People also prefer to appoint attractive candidates to positions with greater social capital opportunities, creating a powerful self-fulfilling prophecy, and ensuring quick professional success. We show that the effects o...

Bullying Interventions Should Address Core Autism Deficits

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Clinical & Research NewsFull AccessBullying Interventions Should Address Core Autism DeficitsLeslie SinclairLeslie SinclairSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:2 Nov 2012https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.47.21.psychnews_47_21_15-bAbstractBullying has been a hot topic of discussion for the better part of the past decade, but research is only just now beginning to elucidate the specific characteristics of those who bully and those who are bullied. Paul Sterzing, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., and his colleagues have recently sought to determine how many adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are affected by bullying.Social skills protect adolescents with ASD from bullying, but having some level of conversational ability—compared with those who do not—may make them more susceptible.O Driscoll Imaging/ShutterstockSterzing, a recent graduate of the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, is now an assistant professor at the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. He and colleagues based at Washington University published in the online September 3 Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine a report that delves more deeply into how adolescents with an ASD experience bullying—as victims, as perpetrators, and as “victims/perpetrators,” those children who are both the bully and the bullied.Their study sample consisted of the participants in the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2, a 10-year, five-wave prospective study of adolescents receiving special-education services. The survey was conducted by SRI International for the U.S. Department of Education. The study identified 1,100 students in the autism category, and Sterzing and his colleagues analyzed interviews with 920 of their parents and analyzed data from the Student’s School Program Survey and the School Characteristics Survey to evaluate the students. The parent report was used to assess age, sex, race, ethnicity, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), income level, social skills, and conversational ability of the adolescents.They found that the rate of bullying victimization for adolescents with an ASD (46.3 percent) was substantially higher than the national prevalence estimate for the general adolescent population (10.6 percent). The rates of perpetration of bullying (14.8 percent) and victimization/perpetration (8.9 percent), however, were roughly equivalent to national estimates found among typically developing adolescents.Adolescents with an ASD and comorbid ADHD were more likely to be victims, bullies, and victim/perpetrators. They found as well that adolescents with greater social skills were significantly less likely to experience victimization, a finding Sterzing and colleagues said was consistent with prior research. Conversational ability, however, correlated strongly with victimization. Compared with adolescents with no conversational ability, adolescents with some level of conversational ability were significantly more likely to be victimized.The researchers were somewhat skeptical of this finding, however, theorizing that adolescents with no conversational ability might be protected by such institutional measures as lower teacher-student classroom ratios, or that school staff might not be informing parents about their child’s bullying involvement.Sterzing and colleagues said their work demonstrated that school-based bullying interventions need to target the core deficits of ASD, such as conversational ability and social skills, and the presence of comorbid conditions such as ADHD.“Future bullying interventions also need to address the higher rates of victimization that occur in general education settings by increasing social integration into protective peer groups and increasing the empathy and social skills of typically developing students toward their peers with an ASD,” they concluded.The study was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Organization for Autism Research, and Autism Speaks. An abstract of “Bullying Involvement and Autism Spectrum Disorders” is posted at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22945284. ISSUES NewArchived

The Effects of Working at Gaining Employment Skills on the Social and Vocational Skills of Adolescents With Disabilities

The current investigation was designed to evaluate the effects of the Working at Gaining Employment Skills (WAGES) curriculum on the social and occupational skills of adolescents with disabilities. Adolescents with disabilities were assigned to either an intervention or control condition. Youth in the intervention group were exposed to the WAGES curriculum for approximately 4.5 months, whereas students in the control group received “business-as-usual” within special education settings. Students and teachers completed brief measures pertaining to prevocational/occupational skills as well as measures pertaining to students’ social skills prior to and following the intervention. Results indicated that after controlling for pretest differences on outcome variables, students participating in the intervention had greater vocational outcome expectations, greater occupational skills, and greater social skills (i.e., empathy, cooperation, and assertiveness) than did students with disabilities in the control condition following the intervention. These findings provide preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of the WAGES curriculum.

Presence and quality of kindergarten children's friendships: concurrent and longitudinal associations with child adjustment in the early school years

The presence and quality of friendships are posited to have developmental significance, yet little is known about the extent to which children without friends versus low-quality friendships compare on socioemotional adjustment. The current study utilized data from a subsample of 567 children (289 boys) participating in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Based on maternal reports at kindergarten, four friendship groups were formed: no friends, low quality, average quality, and high quality, and these groups were used to predict teacher-reported behavior problems and social skills concurrently (in kindergarten) and longitudinally (in first and third grade). Concurrently, low-quality friendships were associated with greater externalizing behavior, whereas high-quality friendships were associated with greater social skills. Longitudinally, having no friends in kindergarten was associated with higher levels of externalizing behavior for boys, but lower levels for girls. Children without friends also showed more internalizing problems at first grade. Lastly, having a high-quality friendship in kindergarten was associated with greater social skills in first and third grades, but only for boys. Results underscore high-quality friendship as a context for the development of social skills and indicate different trajectories of problem behavior for kindergarten children with no friends versus low-quality friendships.

Most Significant Change Experienced by Farmers from Adopting Rainforestation Farming

The Visayas State University (VSU) developed the rainforestation farming (RF) system to replace the more destructive forms of kaingin or slash-and-burn practices commonly practiced by farmers and provide them with a stable and higher income. VSU disseminated the technology through training and establishment of demonstration farms coupled with various extension materials. The most important changes experienced by farmers from adopting RF were increase in income, greater social skills, improvement of their water and air conditions, and enhancement of biodiversity in their rainforestation farms.

Reducing the Drop-Out Rates of At-Risk High School Students: The Effective Learning Program (ELP)

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Effective Learning Program (ELP) with students who are at high risk for dropping out of high school. The intervention sought to change external control expectancies to more internal ones, improve students' skills in building relationships with peers and adults, and increase graduation rates. Thirty-eight students considered at risk for dropping out of high school received the intervention. In addition, ELP-eligible students who did not receive the ELP intervention (n = 36) and regular education students (n = 50) from the same high school were compared with the students who received the ELP. A significantly greater percentage of ELP students graduated, became more internally controlled, achieved more as shown by standardized tests, and developed greater social skills and better relationships than their ELP-eligible but nonparticipating peers. The authors suggest that researchers identify which aspects of the ELP are responsible for the improvement in retention, achievement, and personal attributes.

Social skill as a determinant of social networks and perceived social support in schizophrenia

Factors influencing supportive social networks of people with schizophrenia are little understood. Data from 46 outpatients with schizophrenia were analysed using structural equation modelling to test plausible sets of inter-relationships between social skill, social networks, and social support. The data supported a tentative model about the causal relationships between variables. Paths showed that people with greater social skill had larger social networks, but did not necessarily perceive greater support from these networks. Negative symptoms accounted for some of the effect of social skill on social networks. Whereas groups of single-admission and multiple-admission participants did not differ in terms of social skill, social networks or support, the age of the participants influenced their social skill and the size of their social networks. Younger participants had greater social skill and larger social networks. The results appear to suggest the importance of early intervention for young people with first-episode psychosis.

Self-Esteem in College Students with a Childhood History of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Differences in self-esteem between college students who indicated a childhood history of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and college students in general were examined. Factors predictive of self-esteem among those college students who identified themselves as ADHD in childhood were also studied. Significant differences in self-esteem were found between the college students self-identified as ADHD and the general college population even when gender, SES, and aptitude test scores were taken into account. Self-esteem in college students who self-identified as ADHD was positively correlated with greater social skills and negatively correlated with current symptoms. Implications of these results are discussed.

Is early intervention effective and cost effective?

Factors influencing supportive social networks of people with schizophrenia are little understood. Data from 46 outpatients with schizophrenia were analysed using structural equation modelling to test plausible sets of inter-relationships between social skill, social networks, and social support. The data supported a tentative model about the causal relationships between variables. Paths showed that people with greater social skill had larger social networks, but did not necessarily perceive greater support from these networks. Negative symptoms accounted for some of the effect of social skill on social networks. Whereas groups of single-admission and multiple-admission participants did not differ in terms of social skill, social networks or support, the age of the participants influenced their social skill and the size of their social networks. Younger participants had greater social skill and larger social networks. The results appear to suggest the importance of early intervention for young people with first-episode psychosis.