Social competence and academic achievement in immigrant adolescents in Portugal

Abstract

Palabras-clave: adolescencia, inmigración, competencias sociales, rendimiento académico. ResumenEl objetivo del presente estudio fue el de evaluar la relación entre las competencias sociales, el desempeño académico y una serie de características familiares en una muestra de 98 adolescentes inmigrantes de la región del Algarve (Portugal). Se utilizó el Self-report Form del Social Skills Rating System y se recogieron datos sobre el desempeño escolar y las variables asociadas a la familia como la situación y cualificación laboral de los padres, el número de años en el país de acogida y la estructura familiar.Los resultados mostraron algunas diferencias de grupo entre los adolescentes inmigrantes de primera y segunda generación en sus competencias sociales percibidas en términos de Auto-control y Cooperación, habiéndose hallado que el grupo de segunda generación reportaba niveles significativamente más bajos en ambas sub-escalas. Además, existía en ambos grupos de adolescentes una correlación positiva y significativa entre los resultados escolares y sus niveles reportados de Asertividad y Auto-control. Los resultados se discuten en relación a la intervención en las competencias sociales en contexto escolar. AbstRActThe aim of the present study was to examine the relation between social skills, academic achievement and a range of family characteristics in a sample of 98 school adolescent immigrants in the region of Algarve (Portugal). The Self-report Form of the Social Skills Rating System was used and data was gathered about the students' academic achievement and family related variables such as: parental employment and qualifications, number of years in the country and family structure.The results show some interesting group differences between first-and second-generation adolescent immigrants in their perceived social skills in terms of Self-control and Cooperation, with the second generation group reporting significantly lower levels on these two subscales. Also, there was for all the adolescents a significant positive correlation between academic results and their reported levels of Assertion and Self-control. The results are discussed in relation to school-based social skills intervention.

Assessment of Social Competencies, Coping Strategies, and Academic Achievement of First Year Students

“…Among all others, it was analyzed from the data that the dominant social competency tendency was to be social skill. Scholars contended that social skills are predominantly important in unfavorable situations and to adjust to a new setting (Guimaraes, Lemos, & Nunes, 2012;Sharma, Goswami, & Gupta, 2016). Understanding others' feelings, ideas, needs, and adjusting to different social settings, initiating and maintaining friendship are some of the aspects of social competencies (Han & Kemple, 2006).…”

“…Most commonly, social competency is defined as capacity to understand and manage other people and to get involved in enabling social interactions (Guimaraes, Lemos, & Nunes, 2012;Saxena & Jain, 2013). More specifically, social competency is defined as the capacity to comprehend the thoughts, feelings and activities of persons including one self.…”