Language Ability as a Mediator Between Emotion Regulation and Social Competence in Second Grade Students

Research suggests that language ability and emotion regulation are positively related to social competence in preschool children. This study examines how these relationships function in early elementary school, and explores the role of language ability as a partial mediator between emotion regulation and social competence. Second-grade students (N = 67) completed an assessment of receptive vocabulary, and classroom teachers completed ratings on emotion regulation and social skills. Results show strong relationships between emotion regulation skills and social competence and between language skills and aspects of social competence. There were gender differences in the strength of the relationships between these variables; the relationships were stronger for girls than boys. However, language did not mediate the relationship between emotion regulation and social competence. Additional research should contrast the changing role of language skills in the development and expression of social competence as children mature from preschoolers to early elementary school students and further investigate gender differences in the relationships between these constructs. LANGUAGE ABILITY AS A MEDIATOR 3 Language Ability as a Mediator Between Emotion Regulation and Social Competence in Second Grade Students Social competence has important implications for child development. Children with good social skills are better prepared for school, achieve at higher levels than their peers, and in general have more positive interactions (Ladd, 1990; Ladd, Kochenderfer, & Coleman, 1997). One measure of social competence is peer ratings. Kindergarten students who were preferred by their peers also enjoyed school more and had better attendance records than children who were not as well liked (Ladd et. al, 1997). Cavell (1990) proposed a three-tiered model of social competence that includes social adjustment (reaching age-appropriate landmarks), social performance (demonstrating characteristics in social situations that adults judge as socially skilled), and social skills (characteristics that enable a child to act appropriately). Cavell (1990) also identified peer acceptance as a product of social competence. Children who demonstrate the qualities in Cavell’s (1990) model enjoy superior academic achievements and have more positive relationships that give rise to greater peer preference ratings. Considering those findings, the present study investigated the mechanisms involved in the development and execution of socially competent behavior in second grade students. Language Ability and Social Competence Language ability is essential for social competence because children must understand others and communicate in order to demonstrate their social skills (Gallagher, 1993). Through interaction with peers, children learn to ask questions, to listen, and to relate to others’ situations. By practicing those skills, children develop friendships and become comfortable using their skills in any situation. Research suggests that receptive vocabulary in particular is more LANGUAGE ABILITY AS A MEDIATOR 4 important in nominations of peer status than age or intelligence, and children prefer to interact with peers with normal or above-average receptive vocabulary skills (Gertner, Rice, & Hadley, 1994). Among language-impaired children, those with better receptive vocabulary abilities score higher on peer preference tests than other children who are also language impaired (Gertner et. al, 1994). Receptive language ability has also been linked to higher teacher ratings of social competence (Longoria, Page, Hubbs-Tait, & Kennison, 2009) and several prosocial behaviors, such as comforting or sympathizing with others, cooperating, and helping (Cassidy, Werner, Rourke, & Zubernis, 2003). In order to successfully demonstrate these behaviors, children must be able to recognize when to use them, or exemplify the social performance aspect of Cavell’s (1990) model. Language is thus important in developing emotion expression knowledge, which is the ability to identify emotional expressions, and emotion situation knowledge, the ability to match emotional labels with context (Schultz, Izard, & Ackerman, 2001). In essence, language ability is necessary for both of these tasks. Advanced language ability is not only related to positive behavior; research suggests that children with language deficits are not as socially skilled as their normally developing peers. Teachers were more likely to rate children with language difficulty as less socially mature and less intellectual than their peers (Rice, Hadley, & Alexander, 1993). Gertner et. al (1994) found that children with language or speech impairments were less accepted among their peers, and peer rejection has been linked to negative outcomes such as emotional maladjustment and juvenile delinquency (Denham & Holt, 1993; DeRosier, Kupersmidt, & Patterson, 1994). Deficits in comprehension lead to a lack of responsiveness when others initiate play, and as a result other children spend less time attempting to engage language delayed peers (Cohen & Mendez, 2009). Because those children receive less attention, they are perceived as less socially LANGUAGE ABILITY AS A MEDIATOR 5 competent, which leads to further decreases in opportunities to develop their social skills. Language deficits have been linked to psychiatric issues in late childhood and adolescence, particularly ADHD (Cohen, Davine, & Meloche-Kelly,1988; Beitchman, 1985). Children who are excessively hyperactive would fail to demonstrate the social performance component of Cavell’s (1990) model, and as a result would likely lack in the model’s social adjustment realm as well. In addition, children who are language delayed also show more behavioral problems than their normally developing and advanced peers (Gallagher, 1999; Beitchman, 1996; Camarata, Hughes, & Ruhl, 1988). In a longitudinal study, Lahey, Loeber, Frick, Hart, and Applegate (1995) found that teenage boys who did not verbalize well exhibited more antisocial behaviors over four years compared to teens with better verbal skills. Gallagher (1999) reported that children with behavioral problems have difficulty introducing and maintaining conversation topics, say and hear fewer positive phrases in interaction, and have trouble adjusting language output to listener needs. Children with language deficits are less socially skilled because they lack the means to develop and demonstrate the skills necessary to meet the criteria for social competence. Emotion Regulation and Social Competence Emotion regulation, like social competence, is a broad, multifaceted construct. Eisenberg (2004) defines it as initiating, avoiding, inhibiting, maintaining, or adjusting any part of an internal-feeling state, physiological process related to emotion, or emotion-related goal. In short, emotion regulation involves tailoring behavior to accommodate a feeling or desire to have a feeling. Regulation includes effortful control, or the ability to inhibit one response in favor of another, and social cognition, the ability to identify others’ emotions as important components of regulation (Eisenberg, 2001; Eisenberg, 2004; Spinrad et. al, 2006). Here a distinction must be LANGUAGE ABILITY AS A MEDIATOR 6 made between emotion lability, which refers to the volatility of emotion and negative emotions, and emotion regulation, which refers to adaptive emotional behavior. Internal state language, or a form of self-awareness, is a factor that contributes to emotion regulation (Cole, Armstrong, & Pemberton, 2010). Internal state language allows children to discuss their experiences and tailor their behavior to the prevailing social environment, enabling them to better regulate their emotions. This leads to more positive relationships. Children who regulate their emotions well generally have more positive social interactions with their peers and are more likely to be classified as socially competent. Eisenberg et. al (1993) found that preschool boys’ social status as rated by teachers and aides was positively related to attentional control and constructive coping, while it was negatively related to negative affect, emotional intensity, and acting-out coping. This means that boys who could maintain attention and who dealt with stress in appropriate ways were rated higher in social status than their peers who did not score as high in those areas. Additional research supported these findings by showing that teachers gave higher popularity ratings to children who understood social situations and displayed more prosocial behavior than their peers (Denham, McKinley, Couchoud, & Holt, 1990). Children who are sympathetic can regulate their own emotions well because they utilize two main strategies for coping: problem-focused, or modifying the source of stress, and emotion-focused, or reducing emotional distress (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1992). By utilizing these strategies, children become more popular with peers and adults view them as socially competent. Language Ability as a Mediator Between Emotion Regulation and Social Competence There is strong support for the nexus between language ability and social competence, and between emotion regulation and social competence, but previous research has not LANGUAGE ABILITY AS A MEDIATOR 7 investigated the possibility that language ability partially mediates the relationship between emotion regulation and social competence. Children’s vocabulary affords them the ability to discuss their experiences while understanding others’ experiences and feelings. This leads to meaningful interactions that develop into friendships, and consequently those children who engage in those interactions are considered socially competent. In addition, children with the ability to ‘self-soothe’ or use mechanisms to adjust their internal state can cope with stress effectively. The capacity to ‘self-soothe’ is rooted in language abilit