A study of young children's social competence in interpersonal conflict situations for measuring enactive and verbal responses using hand puppets

In this study, elements of social competence of young children were examined. One hundred twenty-nine young children were interviewed using hand puppets, and their enactive and verbal responses at two hypothetical situations were collected. Then teachers were asked to rate children's social behavior using a questionnaire made of 18 items. Additionally sociometric interviews were administered to children. Enactive and verbal responses were coded into two response categories (i.e. sociable or unsociable) respectively. By combining enactive and verbal response patterns, subjects were classified into five subgrous. Then the results of factor analysis of the teacher's questionnaire produced four factors. These factor scores were examined using MANOVA with five subgroups as independent variables; significant multivariate main effects and univariate main effects of assertiveness factor were obtained. Similarly three sociometric scores were examined using MANOVA and only multivariate main effect was obtained. Results indicated that children whose both enactive and verbal responses proved high were socially well adapted, while those with enactive responses were only high were socially isolated.