Investigation of social competence and temperament type in preschool children in Shanghai Chongming district / 临床儿科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate current status of preschool children's social competence and its relation to tempera-ment type. Methods A total of 1 251 children participated in this study. The questionnaire was conducted and the children were assessed usinginfant-junior middle school student's ability of social life scaleandchildren's temperament scale. Results No significant gender difference was observed in total score of social competence (P>0.05). The total score of live independently was higher in girls as compared to boys (P<0.05). A significant gender difference was observed in classified scores of social competence (P<0.05). Girls with excellent or better-than-normal social competence were more than boys (P<0.05). The distribu-tion of the temperament type in preschool children were the difficult-to-raise type (8.1%), the start-slow type (15.4%), the stan-dard type (69.0%) and the easy-to-raise type (7.5%). There was statistically gender significance (P<0.05) in the distribution of the temperament types. The percentage of difficult-to-raise type was higher in girls than in boys. The percentage of easy-to-raise type was higher in boys than in girls. The total score and classified scores of social competence had significant difference among children with different temperament types (P<0.05). Conclusions There is significant diffe-rence of social competence in chil-dren with different temperament types. Corresponding educational measures according to the child's temperament may be bene-fit to the development in preschool children.