The relationships among language ability, emotion regulation and social competence in second-grade students

Relationships exist between language ability, emotion regulation, and social competence in preschool children. This study examines how these relationships function in elementary school children, and explores whether language ability partially mediates the relationship between emotion regulation and social competence. Second-grade students (N = 67) completed an assessment of receptive vocabulary, and teachers rated emotional and social skills. Results show relationships between emotion regulation and social competence, and between language and aspects of social competence. There were compelling sex differences in the strength of the relationships between these variables. However, language did not act as a mediator. Future research should further investigate the role of language skills in social competence as children mature, and further investigate sex differences in these constructs.