Interaction situations and social goals in adolescence: Development and initial validity of the Social Goal Questionnaire (SGQ)

The aims of this study are twofold: a) to study the degree in which the effect of social goals on behaviour is conditioned by the nature of the different interaction situations, and b) to develop a social goals questionnaire (SGQ) in order to know more about the structure of such goals in adolescents and their role in social integration. A total of 703 Secondary Education students from Madrid completed three questionnaires: the SGQ, the Social Interaction Strategies questionnaire (SISQ), and the Social Integration Questionnaire (SIQ). Analysis of variance, exploratory factor, correlation and regression analyses carried out have shown: 1) that the nature of the situation moderates the effect of social goals; 2) that goals are interrelated and can be organised in three dimensions: Orientation to submissiveness and isolation, Orientation to control and revenge, and Orientation to affiliation, and 3) that social goals predict social integration better than social interaction strategies. Theoretical and practical implications of results are discussed