Social species rely on acquiring appropriate social skills to navigate their social environment. Developmental plasticity allows individuals to develop an appropriate phenotype by receiving cues from ...their social and nonsocial environment. However, committing to a specific phenotype early in life may prove maladaptive if there is a mismatch between the early and future environment. To address potential mismatches, multiple or extended sensitive periods provide opportunities for individuals to gather the necessary information in changing and predictable environments. Cooperative breeders, like the highly social cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher, typically experience changing environments especially during dispersal. While we know that early development is critical for the acquisition of social competence, it remains uncertain whether a second or extended sensitive period exists around the time of dispersal decisions in cooperative breeders. Here we manipulated the early and late life social environment of N. pulcher and asked whether individuals retain plasticity to adjust their social phenotype around sexual maturation. Juveniles were raised for 2 months with or without adults and tested for social competence. Shortly before reaching sexual maturity, they were randomly assigned to be housed alone, with siblings or with a social group for an additional 2 months before undergoing further social competence testing. Aggressive and submissive behaviours were assessed in two social contexts. Fish raised with a large group exhibited greater social competence compared to those raised only among siblings, regardless of subsequent social experiences. This suggests that either early life cues reliably predict future environments in nature or that constraints on late life plasticity exist.
•We study the acquisition of social competence in cooperatively breeding fish.•We investigate whether sensitive periods exist early and late in life.•Early development is critical in acquiring social competence in Neolamprologus pulcher.•Later development does not influence the social competence in N. pulcher.
The research is aimed at describing and analyzing the social competence of madrasa heads in empowering school committees to improve madrasa facilities and infrastructure. This research uses a ...qualitative research approach with a case study type of research. The data in this research was collected using interview, observation and documentation techniques, while the data analysis technique used was data triangulation techniques. The results of the research show that the social competence that must be possessed by madrasah heads concerns several things, including: a) collaborating with other parties for the benefit of the Madrasah; b) participate in social activities; c) have social sensitivity towards other individuals or groups. By empowering committees to improve madrasa facilities and infrastructure, madrasas can utilize additional resources, gain community support, manage projects more efficiently, and build sustainable capacity.
Many youth may make progress while accessing residential mental health treatment, though their outcomes post-discharge are varied. While some youth continue to struggle in the post-discharge ...environment, some are succeeding. The purpose of this report is to explore the perspectives of emerging adults who are succeeding following residential treatment about their daily functioning and life domains. In total 21 youth (mean age 20.3 years) described positive relationships with families, friends, and coworkers, success in completing school or securing employment, and using strategies to manage ongoing mental health challenges. These findings are consistent with resilience theory and may inform intervention during and after residential treatment.
The subject of this article is a report from a study on the functioning of children with Down syndrome in a pre-school integration group and the rationality of attending kindergarten. During the ...research, children with Down syndrome in two groups in a kindergarten in Wrocław were observed. The research started with the thesis that play is the basic form of children’s activity, in which, among others, the social competence of children is shaped. The activity most willingly chosen by children during free play were theatrical forms (role playing, puppet theatres, shadow theatres). The research was conducted for nine months; I was a researcher and educator in this kindergarten.
•We created a revised multi-dimensional measure of curiosity.•Unlike the first version, there are separate overt and covert social curiosity subfactors.•The five curiosity dimensions could be ...distinguished by links to personality and well-being.•Construct validity and temporal stability results support this improved, briefer, nuanced, scale.
Curiosity is a fundamental human motivation that influences learning, the acquisition of knowledge, and life fulfillment. Our ability to understand the benefits (and costs) of being a curious person hinges on adequate assessment. Synthesizing decades of prior research, our goal was to improve a well-validated, multi-dimensional measure of curiosity (Kashdan et al., 2018). First, we sought to distinguish between two types of social curiosity: the overt desire to learn from other people versus covert, surreptitious interest in what other people say and do. Second, we sought to remove weaker items and reduce the length of each subscale. Using data from a survey of 483 working adults (Study 1) and 460 community adults (Study 2), we found evidence to support the pre-existing four dimensions of curiosity (Joyous Exploration, Deprivation Sensitivity, Stress Tolerance, and Thrill Seeking) along with the separation of the fifth dimension into Overt Social Curiosity and Covert Social Curiosity. Each factor of the Five-Dimensional Curiosity Scale Revised (5DCR) had substantive relations with a battery of personality (e.g., Big Five, intellectual humility) and well-being (e.g., psychological need satisfaction) measures. With greater bandwidth and predictive power, the 5DCR offers new opportunities for basic research and the evaluation of curiosity enhancing interventions.
Autistic individuals often face challenges perceiving and expressing emotions, potentially stemming from differences in speech prosody. Here we explore how autism diagnoses between groups, and ...measures of social competence within groups may be related to, first, children's speech characteristics (both prosodic features and amount of spontaneous speech), and second, to these two factors in mothers' speech to their children.
Autistic (n = 21) and non-autistic (n = 18) children, aged 7-12 years, participated in a Lego-building task with their mothers, while conversational speech was recorded. Mean F0, pitch range, pitch variability, and amount of spontaneous speech were calculated for each child and their mother.
The results indicated no differences in speech characteristics across autistic and non-autistic children, or across their mothers, suggesting that conversational context may have large effects on whether differences between autistic and non-autistic populations are found. However, variability in social competence within the group of non-autistic children (but not within autistic children) was predictive of children's mean F0, pitch range and pitch variability. The amount of spontaneous speech produced by mothers (but not their prosody) predicted their autistic children's social competence, which may suggest a heightened impact of scaffolding for mothers of autistic children.
Together, results suggest complex interactions between context, social competence, and adaptive parenting strategies in driving prosodic differences in children's speech.
To create teachers with good social competence, the role of a school principal provides example. The success of the principal can be seen from his efforts to motivate the teacher’s socil competence. ...Need to carry out several policies including planning, organizing, implementing, and monitoring. Of course many obstacles faced by a school principal. The next most basic obstacle is to unite differences of opinion between the teachers. In the efforts of the headmaster so that the relationship of social competence among teachers can run according to his expectations, the headmaster of the MIM 10 implements a reward and puinishment system for all teachers
•Examining the effects of unique forms of victimization on children’s self-perception is critical.•Self-perception is a multifaceted construct – research should examine each facet separately.•Direct ...victimization is inversely related to youth’s sense of social competence & self-worth.•Caregiver intimate partner violence exposure is not associated with youth self-perception.
Exposure to victimization can negatively impact children’s self-perception; however, little is known about how types of victimization are related to different facets of self-perception.
The current study examined associations between three metrics of victimization exposure (e.g., direct victimization, indirect victimization, caregiver intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure) and three aspects of self-perception (i.e., global self-worth, social competence, behavioral conduct) in a sample of racially diverse youth.
Participants were 96 children aged 7–12 (Mage = 9.34, SD = 1.45; 55.2 % girls) and their primary caregiver (Mage = 35.20, SD = 8.08; 100 % women). Families were recruited from a family safety center in the Midsouth, United States. The sample was predominantly Black or African American (76 %) and lower income (65 % lived below the federal poverty line for a family of three).
Children reported on their own self-perception and experiences of direct and indirect victimization; caregivers reported on their experiences with IPV.
Regression analyses (n = 96 children) demonstrated that direct victimization exposure was negatively associated with children’s self-worth and social competence while indirect victimization exposure was positively linked with children’s self-worth and social competence. Caregiver IPV was not significantly associated with any domain of self-perception.
Results highlight the importance of violence prevention programs targeting different forms of victimization and improving accessibility to interventions for children exposed to adversity.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by challenges in social competence that persist in adulthood, yet few treatment options exist. A pilot randomized clinical trial (RCT) of a ...peer-mediated, theatre-based intervention with established efficacy in youth with ASD was examined in autistic adults. The final sample consisted of forty-seven 18-to-40-year-old participants randomized to the experimental (EXP N = 23) or waitlist control (WLC N = 24) condition. A multimodal, social interdependent model was employed to examine social competence changes in brain (incidental face memory (IFM) using event-related potentials), cognition (Wechsler Memory Scale-III), behavior (Contextual Assessment of Social Skills) and function (Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS); Adaptive Behavior Assessment Scale (ABAS) Social Composite). Using analysis of covariance in which pretest was controlled in the model, posttest between-group differences were observed on IFM (p = 0.016, η
= 0.139, d = 0.79) and several social and adaptive functional (SRS, ABAS) outcomes in social communication and interaction (SCI) (p = 0.019, η
= 0.121, d = -00.45), communication (p = 0.044 η
= 0.09, d = -00.31), and motivation (p = 0.001, η
= 0.229, d = -0.79) domains. At two-month follow-up, gains in social motivation remained (p = 0.041, η
= 0.100, d = -0.77). The results offer preliminary support for a unique theatre-based social skills intervention for autistic adults who have few treatment options to enhance social competence. The trial was pre-registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT04349644).
Objective: This study sought to determine whether parenting styles predict long-term psychosocial outcomes after traumatic brain injury in young children.
Methods: The study involved a concurrent ...cohort, prospective design, with longitudinal assessments up to early adolescence. Participants included 126 children with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury or orthopedic injury, ages 3 to 6 years 11 months, recruited between 2003 and 2006. Parents rated children's pre-injury behavioral adjustment, social competence, and executive functioning shortly after injury, and again 6.8 years post injury. Parents also rated their parenting styles (permissive, authoritarian, authoritative) at both occasions.
Results: After controlling for pre-injury functioning, the groups differed significantly on all three outcomes (ΔR
2
0.07 to 0.13). Late but not early parenting styles predicted outcomes in all groups (ΔR
2
0.06 to 0.17): more permissive parenting predicted worse outcomes in all domains (β= −0.18, 0.20, 0.27); and more authoritative parenting predicted better social competence and executive functioning (β= −0.17, 0.46). Severe traumatic brain injury interacted with parenting style for several outcomes, with ineffective parenting exacerbating the negative sequelae.
Conclusions: Parenting style predicts children's long-term psychosocial functioning after early childhood injury, and may moderate the effects of early traumatic brain injury.
Implications for rehabilitation
Children with traumatic brain injury (especially those with severe injuries) are likely to require long-term monitoring and rehabilitation to address their psychosocial functioning.
Interventions that focus on parenting may be an important avenue for promoting better psychosocial outcomes among children with severe traumatic brain injury.
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