Children's Social Competence in Context: The Contributions of Family, School and Culture (International Series in Social Psychology)

Interpersonal relationships have been systematically studied in North America and Europe for about 80 years, yet many theorists have avoided the thorny task of charting the origins or causes of social relations and individual styles of relating. Thebelief that the child's interpersonal style is moulded by the parents' discipline and the example they set is deeply ingrained in Western culture. The values of parents in bringing up a child are combined with the values repersented by school and society.Many authorites, however, now reject the idea that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the way children are raised and the persons they become, or, at least, recognize that the issue is more complex than it once seemed. The purpose of this book is to equip the reader to understand the dynamics by which these contexts - home, school and culture - may come to influence the emergence of the child's social competence. The theoretical foundations and scope of relevant research are depicted, and critized, in a constructive way.