Correlates of social behavior of the child in the school environment

Abstract

According to Rohner’s model of family relations, as well as model of peers’ relations given by Prker and Asher, child’s behavior is to a large extent a reflection of the social relationship in these two most important settings.The basic research question of the presented study is: how are the family and peer relations associated with child's social behaviour in the school, in early adolescence (7th grade pupils). The following forms of social behavior are taken into account: aggressive, pro-social, lonesome, shy, child’s perception of the social support and satisfaction with the school. The family relations are estimated on the basis of pupils perception of the quality of family interaction, as well as mother’s and father’s acceptance, avoidance, emotional involvement and control. The peers’ relations are presented with estimation of the quality of friendship, satisfaction with the best friend and sociometric index of acceptance and avoidance. For the measurement of variables, the total of 13 instruments were distributed to a sample of 109 (49 male and 60 female) 7th grade pupils from one elementary school in Skopje. The obtained data are calculated with regresiv analyses and they show that family relations significantly influence five out of six forms of pupils’social behavior, which is all except shyness. Similarly, peer relations do not play a significant role in interpreting the shy behavior of the children in a school environment, while other forms of social behavior are affected in significant level. Family relations, when compared to peers’ relations, proved to be more contributing for the understanding of the following forms of pupils’ social behavior: loneliness, aggressiveness and satisfaction with the school. Peers’ relations, however, proved to be more significant for the perception of peers’ social support. Loneliness proved to be more influenced by the family relations, but the role of the best friend and the quality of friendship significantly contribute to the stronger or weaker feeling of lonesomeness. The family interaction in the form of a mutual understanding and support by the family members proved to result in a lower aggressive behavior. The variables that define pro-social behavior are: father’s acceptance, mother’s rejection, relation with the friends and satisfaction with the best friend. The satisfaction with the school is influenced by several family variables: the quality of the family interaction, mother’s rejection and acceptance, father’s emotionality and rejection. The most significant peers’ variables proved to be peers’ rejection and the quality of the best friend’s friendship. In conclusion, even though the family interaction is still most important for young adolescent. The family is not marginalized yet. From the peer variables the most significant for the child’s social behavior is quality of friendship with best friend in the school.