Importance of social competence at the start of elementary school for adjustment indicators a year later

Visvaldas Legkauskas
Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
Šarūnė Magelinskaitė-Legkauskienė
Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Lithuania

The present research investigated the importance of learning-related and interpersonal aspects of social competence as well as parent education in the first grade for school adjustment indicators These included self-reported involvement in bullying, teacher-reported student-teacher relationships, and academic achievement - a year later. Social competence of children was assessed using the Elementary School Social Competence Scale (short version) completed by teachers. The sample consisted of 403 children attending 14 elementary schools in Lithuania. Results indicated that the learning-related aspect of social competence measured in the first grade was significantly related to all indicators measured in the second grade, while the interpersonal aspect of social competence was significantly related to student-teacher relationship quality. Taken together, both aspects of social competence assessed in the first grade explained some 34% of the variance in student-teacher conflict a year later. Interpersonal social competence explained 24% of the variance in student-teacher closeness. Furthermore, learning-related social competence and parent education significantly predicted academic achievement, accounting for 26% of the variance. Results of the present study highlight the lasting links of learning-related social competence and school adjustment indicators in elementary school.
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Authors: Visvaldas Legkauskas (corresponding author) is an associate professor at the Department of Psychology of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania. He received a PhD in psychology from Vytautas Magnus University. His research interests include development social competence and identity, as well as effects of screen time on children and adolescents. Email: visvaldas.legkauskas@vdu.lt Šarūnė Magelinskaitė-Legkauskienė is a lecturer at the Department of Health Psychology of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences in Kaunas, Lithuania and also works as a school psychologists at Prano Mašioto Elementary School in Kaunas. She received a PhD in psychology from Vytautas Magnus University. Her research interests include school adjustment and development of social competence. Email: sarune.magelinskaite@lsmuni.lt Please cite as: Legkauskas, V. & Magelinskaitė, Š (2019). Importance of social competence at the start of elementary school for adjustment indicators a year later. Issues in Educational Research, 29(4), 1262-1276. http://www.iier.org.au/iier29/legkauskas.pdf