Prosociaal Gedrag bij Kinderen: De Associaties met Receptieve Taalvaardigheid en Negatieve Affectiviteit.

Abstract

Abstract: Social skills in childhood are predictors of academic achievement and the development of internalising problems. Children with language disabilities often have delays in social skills such as prosocial behaviour. To identify children at risk for developing problems in social skills, it is important to look into the factors that contribute to the development of this. In this study the associations between prosocial behaviour, receptive language abilities and negative affectivity were investigated. Furthermore, the possible effect of gender in the association between receptive language abilities and prosocial behaviour was researched. Results show that receptive language abilities were not related to prosocial behaviour in primary school-aged children. Besides that, negative affectivity did not contribute to this relationship. Lastly, there was no difference between boys and girls in the association between receptive language ability and prosocial behaviour. The findings of this study show the importance of randomised, longitudinal research on the associations between language abilities and social skills.