Social Competence and Adjustment in

Chinese and North American Children:

A Contextual-Developmental Perspective

Xinyin Chen

University of Western Ontario

Some Theoretical Issues

Social competenceThe ability to act effectively and appropriately in social situations in order to achieve personal or group success

e.g., acquiring a toy from another child

Culture and social competence

- The judgment of “appropriateness” based on cultural norms and values

e.g., affect expression in parent-child interactions

- The general neglect of “meanings” of socio-emotional functioning in cross-cultural research

The contextual-developmental perspective

- The meaning of socio-emotional functioning in social interactions

Social evaluations and responses as a indicator and mediator of cultural influence on human development

- The meaning of socio-emotional functioning in development

Developmental processes and patterns (e.g., antecedents, concomitants and outcomes)

Shyness-inhibition

The Western literature (e.g., Asendorpf, 1990; Coplan et al., 2004)

- indicating social immaturity and incompetence

- concurrent and long-term correlates

Shyness-inhibition in traditional Chinese culture

Shyness-inhibition vs. social disinterest

Early Behavioral Characteristics and Socialization I: Behavioral Inhibition

Participants 238 children in China, 108 children in Canada, aged 2 years

Procedure

- Behavioral inhibition paradigm

- Maternal childrearing attitudes (Block, 1981)

Acceptance, Rejection, Punishment orientation, etc.

Inhibition Scores

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

contactwith M infree play

contactwith M in

toys

latency toapproachstranger

latency totouch toys

China

Canada

**

*** ***

Percentage of Children who Contacted Mother or Did not Approach Stranger

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

contacted Min free play

contacted Min toys

did notapproachstranger

did not touchtoys

China

Canada***

***

***

***

Table 1.

Correlations between Maternal Childrearing Attitudes and Inhibition __________________________________________________________ Maternal attitudes China Canada Z value __________________________________________________________

Acceptance .17* -.22* 2.73**

Rejection -.18* .10 -2.00*

Punishment orientation -.15* .21* -2.52*

__________________________________________________________

N = 108 and 82 in Chinese and Canadian samples. * = p < .05 ** = p < .01 *** = p < .001

Samples:China: N = 200 (50 shy-inhibited, 100 non-shy, based

on POS) Canada: N = 180 (45 shy-inhibited, 90 non-shy)

Age = 4 yrs Laboratory observations: Same-sex quartets, 2 x 15 min. free play sessions

Interaction Strategy Coding:Initiations: nonverbal passive, active low-power, active

high-powerResponses: positive responses, information exchange,

rejection

Social Experiences of Shy-inhibited Children in Peer Interactions in China and Canada

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

passive non-verbal

active low-power

active high-power

Fig 1. Initiations made to others

me

an

pro

po

rtio

n s

co

res Shy-China

Non-shy-China

Shy-Canada

Non-shy-Canada

*

****

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

positive response informationexchange

reject

Fig 2. Responses received from others

mea

n p

rop

ort

ion

sco

res Shy-China

Non-shy-China

Shy-Canada

Non-shy-Canada

*

**

*

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

passive non-verbal

active low-power

active high-power

Fig 3. Initiations received from others

mea

n p

rop

ort

ion

sco

res Shy-China

Non-shy-China

Shy-Canada

Non-shy-Canada

*

*

Participants: About 500 children from age 8 and 10 years, assessed every 2 years

Peer Assessments (RCP, Masten et al., 1985): Shyness-Sensitivity, etc.

Teacher Ratings (TCRS, Hightower et al., 1986)Sociometric NominationsSchool RecordsSelf-Reports

The “Shanghai Longitudinal Project”

Table 1. Concurrent Correlations between Shyness and Adjustment in Childhood_______________________________________________________

Shyness

China Canada_______________________________________________________

Peer acceptance .27*** -.21***

Peer rejection .05 .01

Teacher rated competence .17*** -.30***

Loneliness -.01 .24***

Leadership .29***

Distinguished studentship .29***

Academic achievement .12**_______________________________________________________Note. N = 612 and 304 in Chinese and Canadian samples respectively.

Table 2. Predictive Relations between Childhood Shyness (8-10 years) and Adolescent Adjustment (12-14 years) in China

_____________________________________________________Adolescent variables Childhood Shyness

_____________________________________________________

Peer acceptance .29** /-.04

Peer rejection .11

Teacher-rated competence .31***

Leadership .25***

Distinguished studentship .31***

Academic achievement .20**

Depression -.01_____________________________________________________ N = 162. Correlations for boys and girls are presented before and after the slash when significant sex differences were found in regressions. * p<.05 ** p<.01 *** p<.001

The massive economic reform and social change in China over the last two decades

The social ecological perspectives on human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Elder, 1996 Silbereisen, 2000)

Social Functioning and Adjustment in Chinese children: The Imprint of Social Change

Participants:

Three cohorts (1990, 1998, 2002) of elementary school children in Shanghai, China

N = 429, 390 and 266; M age =10 years Family income (monthly income/ person):

1990: 161 yuan (SD = 243) 1998: 816 yuan (SD = 587) 2002: 1431 yuan (SD = 1836)

$1 US = approx. 5.2 yuan in 1990, and 8.3 yuan in 1998 and 2002

Table 3. Effects of Shyness in Predicting Adjustment Variables in Three Cohorts of Children in urban China_________________________________________________________________Adjustment variable 1990 1998 2002 X2 (df=2)_________________________________________________________________

Peer acceptance .17** .14* -.15* 13.56***

Peer rejection .05 .35*** .34*** 14.34***

Teacher-rated comp. .20*** -.05 -.22*** 25.88***

Leadership .23*** .11* -.11 14.76***

Academic achievement .18*** .07 -.08 9.52**

Depression -.06 .01 .22** 11.38**______________________________________________________Note. The effect of sex was controlled in the analyses. n = 429, 390 and 266 for 1990, 1998 and 2002 cohorts, respectively. *= p < .05 ** = p < .01 *** = p < .001

Table 4. Effects of Shyness in Predicting Adjustment Variables in Rural Children in China_____________________________________________________Adjustment variables Shyness

_____________________________________________________

Peer acceptance .30***

Peer rejection .21***

Teacher-rated competence .17***

Leadership .12**

Academic achievement .18***

Depression -.02_____________________________________________________ Note. The effect of sex and grade was controlled in the analyses. N = 536. * p<.05 ** p<.01 *** p<.001

Conclusions

- The findings from our projects indicate that the changing social and cultural context may be involved in the process in which specific socioemotional characteristics or behaviors (e.g., shyness-inhibition) are perceived, evaluated and responded to by adults and children.

- Social evaluations and responses, in turn, may serve as an important mediator of contextual influence on individual behavior and development. As a result, the developmental patterns and processes of socioemotional functioning may vary across cultures and over historical time.

Changing social and cultural context

socialization beliefs and practices

Social interpretations, evaluations, responses

Child socio-emotional characteristics e.g., social sensitivity, receptiveness

Social functioning, psycho-emotional adjustment e.g., depression

Parent-child, peer relationships, groups

Child early disposition, biological influences e.g., shyness-inhibition

OriginsDevelopmental OutcomesProcesses

Dyn

amic

pro

cesses

Figure 2. A Contextual- Developmental Process Model (Chen, in press)