Cultural Differences: Their Effect on Social Skill Development

The level of social skill that is acquired by a child can be determined by the culture in which they are brought up. The culture of a country provides certain “guidelines” for the upbringing of children and, most importantly, the structure of their schooling. Within this schooling, children are taught the proper social behaviors. The external environment competes with natural born, biological tendencies of a child along with their home/family influences. The potential connection between culture and social skill development was examined through daycare surveys in which teachers from two countries answered questions regarding the social skill level of their students. Seven children in the United States and twenty-five children in China were evaluated by daycare providers. These results were discussed in comparison with the countries’ culture along with specific examples drawn from the amount of bullying present in later school grades. The study found that in comparison of the United States data with the Chinese data that a country’s culture does not have any effect on the social skill development of its’ children. The results proved independent of the specified cultural characteristics. This, in turn, also does not affect the frequency of bullying found in later school years