The Role And Mechanism Of Family Environment On Young Children’s Social Skills

Social skills are the ability of children to adapt to social life and social interaction. Since the 1970 s, social skills have been widespreadly concerned by the researchers, and they have become a hotspot of psychology research. Many studies have shown that the development of young children‘s social skills is affected by family environment. Even in the face of some risk factors, a strong family environment can help children form good social skills and adaptability. In this study, the questionnaires, interviews, behavioral experiments and other research tools are applied to explore the role and mechanism of the family environment on young children’s social skills from the perspective of combined qualitative and quantitative research. This thesis includes the contents of the following five parts.Study 1: Preparation of parent assessment questionnaire about young children’s social skills. Based on the interview arrangement and comprehensive literature, we obtain the initial items about young children‘s social skills. By the scoring of related child education experts, the preliminary questionnaire was screened and formed. After exploratory factor analysis, double-loaded or low-loaded items were removed and the formal items of the questionnaire were formed. Internal consistency of the questionnaire, retest reliability, construct validity, content validity, and others were researched.Study 2: Exploring the consistency of multi-subject evaluation about young children’s social skills. The parent assessment questionnaire and teacher assessment questionnaire about young children‘s social skills were used as the research tools to investigate young children‘s parents and teachers, and the experiments about the task of delayed gratification and the task of moving heavy objects were carried out on young children. The data obtained were analyzed using correlation analysis, multi-quality multi-method analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, and the comparative assessment about the consistency of young children’s social skills was performed based on the evaluation results of the three analysis methods to obtain the explanation rate of parents‘ reports to social skills.Study 3: Parents of young children with high and low social skills were interviewed. According to the results of parent questionnaire about young children‘s social skills, the children with social skill scores of the top 27% and the last 27% were selected as the high and low social skill children. The father or mother of the young children with high or low social skills was interviewed to understand their family environment. Through qualitative analysis and difference test, the difference of their family environment was obtained.Study 4: Exploring the relationship between objective family environment and children’s social skills. Using self-compiled questionnaire about the basic situation of young children‘s families, the children‘s family situation, including the family structure, the main caregivers, family economic status, parents’ education level and profession were surveyed. Children’s social skill questionnaire was used to understand the social skills of young children. By difference test, we acquired the influence of the objective family environment on young children’s social skills.Study 5: Exploring the relationship between subjective family environment and young children’s social skills. By using the questionnaires about the family function, family intimacy and adaptability, psychological control source of children’s education, parental conflict, parenting style, support cooperative education and young children‘s social skills, young children‘s parents were investigated. By mediating effect test, structural equation models and other methods, intermediary role and influencing path of parenting style or support cooperative education among the family environment factors were tested.Through the above research, we draw the following conclusions of this thesis:(1) The prepared parent‘s assessment questionnaire about young children‘s social skills has a high level of reliability and validity. The indicators of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis are in line with the requirement of statistical surveying. Therefore, this questionnaire can act as an effective tool to evaluate Chinese young children’s social skills.(2) The assessing results of parents, teachers and experimenters on young children’s social skills are in a lower degree of consistency. The explanation rate of parent‘s reports on social skills is higher than the results of teacher‘s reports and laboratory observations.(3) There are some differences between the family environment of the young children with high social skills and that of the children with low social skills. The family environment factors of young children with high social skills are superior to children of low social skills. The young children of low social skills need to improve their home environment.(4) The census register, the only child, the caregivers and family income have significant impacts on young children’s social skills. Family structure, parent‘s different educational levels and occupations show no significant difference on young children‘s social skills.(5) The family function not only directly affects young children’s social skills, but also indirectly affects children’s social skills by parenting style. Parenting style plays part intermediary role between family function and young children’s social skills.(6) Psychological control source of children’s education indirectly affects young children’s social skills by parenting style. Parenting style plays total intermediary role on the relationship between psychological control source of children’s education and young children‘s social skills.(7) Family intimacy and adaptability and parental conflict not only directly impact on young children’s social skills, but also indirectly affects young children‘s social skills by parental support cooperative education. Parental support cooperative education plays part intermediary role among the family intimacy and adaptability, parental conflict and young children‘s social skills.