Aggression and prosocial behaviors in social conflicts mediating the influence of cold social intelligence and affective empathy on children's social preference.

This study proposes a model in which aggressive and prosocial behaviors exhibited in social conflicts mediate the influence of empathy and social intelligence to children's social preference by same-sex peers. Data were obtained from kindergarten to the end of the first grade. The sample yielded 117 Spanish children (64 girls and 53 boys) with a mean age of 62.8 months (SD = 3.3) at the beginning of the study. For boys, affective empathy contributed to boys' social preference through a decrease in physical aggression as responses to social conflict. For girls, affective empathy had an indirect effect on girls' preference by increasing assistance to others in their conflicts. No mediating effect in the contribution of social intelligence on girls' social preference was detected. Our results suggest that, only for girls, cold social intelligence can promote both indirect aggression (coercive strategic that do not leave social preference, at least at these ages) and behaviors that lead social preference (such as prosocial behaviors).

Factors affecting the social ability in pre-school children: An exploratory study.

In a previous paper (Braza et al., 1993) we quantified the social ability of pre-school children by means of two Indices: Amplitude of Behaviour (I.A.B.) and Amplitude of Partnership (I.A.P.). The aim of this study is to explore their possible relations with some agents of socialisation and to validate these indices of amplitude as a measure of social ability. The variables considered (biometrical measurements, family characteristics, and social behaviours in peer groups) were ordered by means of a prior analysis of the principal components, and the factor scores of each individual in these analyses were chosen as new variables. Twenty-six pre-school children attending a nursery in Cádiz (SW Spain) were filmed at school during their free-play period. Our results confirm the fitness of the Index of Amplitude of Behaviour (I.A.B.) not only as a useful tool for the study of socialisation, but also as a possible predictor of later success and social adjustment.