Cognitive and motivational influences on children's social competence and social adjustment

The objective of this research was to explore the relationship between specific cognitive and motivational processes and children's social competence and adjustment. Several indicators of these constructs, namely strategies, self-efficacy, goals, and outcome expectations have been shown to significantly predict the performance of socially competent behavior. However, each of these variables has been studied in isolation. The main goal of this study was to test the relationship between social process variables and social functioning outcomes in a multivariate context. Further, the ecological validity of some of the measurement tools used in the field of children's social functioning were questioned and alternative methods were introduced. Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that three of the four social process domains (i.e., strategies, self-efficacy, and outcome expectations) were predictive of social functioning outcomes. Further, the results indicated that children who are judged to be socially competent, prosocial, and socially accepted hold higher expectations for entering peer groups and have a better understanding of how to enter groups than their peers. These children also hold higher self-efficacy beliefs for conflict situations should they arise than peers. Finally, a mediated effects model of social functioning was supported by the results. Implications for intervention were discussed.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio