The Impact of Young Children’s Communication Skills on Social Competence: The Double Mediating Effect of Peer Play

Abstract

Objectives: Focusing on young children’s communication skills and play with peers affecting social competence, this study aims to verify the double mediating effects of play interaction and disconnection as mediators according to peer play. Furthermore, the existence of structural differences is examined according to gender group in the path of influence affecting social competence.Methods: The data was from the 7th wave of the Panel Study on Korean Children (<i>n</i> = 1,167). The bootstrap method was applied using structural equation modeling by SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 20.0 to analyze the double-mediating effects. Sobel's test was used to verify each mediating effect contained in the model. Multi-group analysis was conducted to examine the differences according to gender.Results: First, the higher a young child's communication skills, the more active the play interaction with their peers. Consequently, social competence also increased. Second, the higher the communication skills, the lower the play disconnection, affecting social competence. Third, communication skills directly affected social competence. Fourth, there was no difference according to the gender group in the double mediating effect model.Conclusion: The results suggest that communication skills affect social competence, and these relationships are influenced through peer play that increases peer interaction and reduces disconnection. Additionally, these can be applied in infants of both genders and interventions undertaken. To improve social competence, the importance of communication skills and peer play, and the direction of early childhood teachers' interventions were presented and discussed.