Models of emotion skills and social competence in the Head Start classroom

Research Findings: Fostering the social competence of at-risk preschoolers would be facilitated by knowing which of children\u27s emotion skills are most salient to social outcomes. We examined the emotion skills and social competence of 44 children enrolled in a Head Start program. Emotion skills were examined in terms of children\u27s emotional lability and emotion regulation, whereas social competence was measured in terms of three aspects of preschoolers\u27 social relationships: social skills, student-teacher relationships, and peer likeability. Although emotion regulation emerged as an important predictor for social skills and positive relationships with teachers, emotional lability was a significant predictor of student-teacher conflict and peer likeability. In fact, emotional lability mediated the relation between student-teacher conflict and peer likeability. Practice or Policy: The findings are discussed in terms of the complex associations between children\u27s emotion skills and early social relationships. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC