Group acceptance and emotional competence of preadolescent children

Abstract

This study examines contribution of emotional competence on socially competent behavior of preadolescents. The following emotional competencies were registered in 397 children: emotion recognition, emotional regulation, empathy and style of coping with aversive emotions. Discriminant analysis was conducted in order to identify emotional competencies that differentiate among the groups of participants with different levels of social preference. The data showed that groups of popular children, rejected children, and children of average sociometric status significantly differ with respect to their emotional competence. Children rejected by their peers displayed the lowest level of emotional competence. .U cilju utvrdjivanja znacaja emocionalne kompetencije u socijalno kompetentnom ponasanju dece preadolescentnog uzrasta, ispitano je 397 ucenika nekoliko novosadskih osnovnih skola. Procenjivan je sociometrijski status ispitanika, kao i sledece specificne emocionalne kompetencije: prepoznavanje emocija, emocionalna regulacija, empatijsko reagovanje i stil prevladavanja averzivnih emocija. Da bismo identifikovali one emocionalne kompetencije koje najbolje diferenciraju grupe ispitanika formirane po stepenu prihvacenosti od strane vrsnjaka, na prikupljenim podacima je primenjena diskriminativna analiza. Rezultati pokazuju da postoje razlike u emocionalnoj kompetenciji izmedju popularne, odbacene i dece prosecnog sociometrijskog statusa. Deca koju vrsnjacka grupa odbacuje pokazuju najmanji stepen emocionalne kompetencije. .