Social-Emotional Competence

Social-emotional competence is an important developmental milestone that influences all aspects of children’s lives. The development of social-emotional skills occurs throughout childhood and [Page 1248]is strongly linked to school success, both academically and socially. Emotional competence consists of a child’s comprehension, expression, and regulation of emotions. As children mature, they learn to apply their knowledge of emotions to social situations in order to regulate their display of emotions in accordance with societal expectations. Therefore, emotional competence and social competence are interdependent. One definition of social competence is success with peer interactions and is typically measured through peer acceptance. Children are more likely to be accepted by their peers if they master important social skills such as perspective taking, conflict resolution, and reciprocity in order to ...