Link Between Parental Friendships and Children's Social Competence in Preschool Children

Abstract

The current study examined the relation between a mother's friendships and her child's social competence in preschool. The number of a mother's friends, and the support felt by those friendships, was compared to her preschool child's social competence using bivariate correlations. Parents of 3 and 4-year-old preschool children in Tulsa, Oklahoma were asked to complete the Perceived Social Support Scale-Friends and the parent report version of the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation-30. The child's preschool teacher completed the teacher version of the SCBE-30. The majority of the sample was White (62.5%) and reported yearly household income as at least $50,000. Results showed a significant relation between the number of a mother's friends and the teacher reported social competence of the child in preschool. No other significant results related to the study hypotheses were found. An additional correlation showed a significant relation between the number of a mother's friends and the support she receives from those friendships. The results of the current study support the findings of previous studies that suggest that the size of a parent's social network (which includes friendships) has an impact on their child's social development. This study looked specifically at parental friendships as opposed to size and support of the parental social network as a whole.