Personality and behavior correlates of social competence in preschool children

A study undertaken to further validate attention structures as a measure of social organization in preschool groups, as well as to find personality correlates from Q-set data with the construct of social competence, as determined by social ranking on attention structure data. Fifty-six subjects, thirty-five boys and twenty-one girls, with an age range of from three years one month to six years two months, from three preschool daycare centres were observed for four months by two independent observers. Correlational analysis and cluster analysis revealed eight strong item clusters highly correlated to attention structure, and readily comparable to research in competence. These clusters may indicate a narrow, age constricted measure of competence. The non-correlated items revealed eleven clusters of behaviors important in personality development, as well as some related to the broader view of social competence. An amalgamation of these clusters may be the basis for a good measure of social competence.Arts, Faculty ofPsychology, Department ofGraduat