The Structure of Interpersonal Communication Skills of the New Generation Senior School Students: The Case of Generations X and Z
Authors: Pečiuliauskienė Palmira 
Published: October 2018

The article deals with the interpersonal communication skills of senior school students of the new generation Z. These skills were investigated using a questionnaire for measuring the interpersonal competence. Through application of factor analysis, five groups of interpersonal communication skills of senior students have been identified: initiation of interpersonal relationships, assertion of displeasure with others’ actions, self-disclosure, provision of emotional support, and management of interpersonal conflicts. The interpersonal communication skills of the new generation (Z) senior students were compared to the interpersonal communication skills of the representatives of generation X.

Psychologists (Buhrmester et al, 1988) analyzed the skills of interpersonal communication competence in the field of behavior and distinguished five domains of behavioral skills: initiating interpersonal relationships; asserting displeasure with others’ actions, self-disclosure of personal information, providing emotional support, and managing of interpersonal conflicts. These domains of the interpersonal communication competence were identified in the study of the representatives of the generation X in 1988. It is urgent to investigate the interpersonal communication skills of the new generation (Z), whether they are identical to those of the generation X. The research question was formulated as follows: what are the interpersonal skills of the students of the new generation, what is their internal structure?

The focus of the research: interpersonal communication skills of school students.

The aim of the research was to systematically investigate the interpersonal communication skills of students of the new generation (Z), highlighting the essential groups of skills.

Research objectives:

1. To single out the groups of interpersonal communication skills of the new generation of school students.

2. To contrast the groups of interpersonal communication skills of the new generation of senior school students with the ones of generation X.

3. To contrast the interpersonal communication skills of different generations (X and Z) of learners across different groups of interpersonal communication skills.

The skills of interpersonal competence of students were measured using the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire (ICQ) (Buhrmester et al., 1988). The items of this questionnaire were rated on a 4-point scale.

The research sample. The research sample is reliable and representative. The representativeness of the sample was ensured by using random cluster sampling. Senior school students (of forms 11-12) participated in the research. The research clusters were the major cities of the country. In the standard random sample, the classes from the clusters were selected and all of the students of the chosen class participated in the research. The study was conducted in 2015.

Theoretically there were distinguished five groups of interpersonal communication skills: initiation of interpersonal relationships, assertion of displeasure with others’ actions, selfdisclosure, provision of emotional support, and management of interpersonal conflicts. Based on these five factors, it was revealed that the most strongly expressed skills of the new generation (Z) of senior school students were in the domain of providing emotional support, and the least strongly expressed ones were in the group of self-disclosure.

It was determined that the factor loadings for providing emotional support differed in the two groups of different generation (X and Z) participants. For the representatives of X generation the priority in providing emotional support was related to global decisions in their lives and career decisions. In the case of Z generation, the priority in providing emotional support was related to providing emotional support while solving problems in their families and among closest friends.

Different generations (X and Z) had different priorities in initiating interpersonal relationships. It was important for the participants of generation X to actively initiate interpersonal relationships; they expressed the desire ‘to do something together’. In the case of Generation Z, the weight of this claim was only in the fourth place – 0.721. It was the most important for the participants of generation Z to initiate and keep up a conversation. In addition, the flexibility was a characteristic feature of the skills of the senior school students of generation Z in initiating interpersonal relationships.

Different generations (X and Z) varied in their skills of interpersonal conflict resolution. The new generation (Z) senior school students were reluctant to acknowledge their mistakes during interpersonal conflicts, but they were able to refrain from saying unnecessary things that could further escalate the conflict. The participants of the generation X, on the other hand, tended to acknowledge their mistakes during interpersonal conflicts; they were better at taking a hold of themselves and casting away the feelings of jealousy / outrage while in conflict with the close people.

There was a difference between representatives of generations X and Z in their skills of assertion of personal rights and displeasure with others. In this group there emerged the ability of the representatives of generation X to tell their interlocutor about unacceptable ways of communication for them. Meanwhile, for the generation Z, this item was of the lowest factorial weight.

In the group of self-disclosure skills there emerged the ability of the generation Z senior school students to fully trust their closest interlocutor and take off their ‘masks’, the ability to tell a close interlocutor things that were deeply worrying for them. The generation X participants also had the ability to reveal certain very personal details and events of their lives to a newly acquainted person.