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Sinergias educativas
https://doi.org/10.37954/se.v6i3.178
July - September Vol. 6 - 3 - 2021
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https://doi.org/10.37954/se.v6i3.178
Social skills and behavioral problems in
3- to 5-year-old children: a case study
Habilidades sociales y problemas de conducta en niños de 3
a 5 años de edad: un estudio de caso
Alexandra Cárdenas-Loor
*
Patricia Genovezzy-Velásquez
*
Ligia Napa-Arévalo
*
Henry Alarcón-López
*
Abstract
The aim was to evaluate social skills and behavior in children from 3 to 5
years of age. The research was conducted at the "TIWINZA" Basic
Education School, located in the Buena Fe canton, province of Los Ríos.
The skills of 16 children were evaluated through surveys to their parents
or legal representatives, and the proposed survey was used for this purpose.
Eighty-seven percent and 75% of the children were located within a
medium level of cooperation, interaction and social independence.
Regarding social skills, 75% of the children were located between the
medium and significant deficit levels. The 62.5%, 56.3%, and 37.5% did
not present problems of social isolation, anxiety/complaints, or selfish or
egocentric behavior, respectively, and only one student showed a
* Bachelor's Degree in Education with a major in Early
Childhood Education. Unidad Educativa Particular
ADONAI, Quevedo, Ecuador, acardenas@adonai.edu.ec;
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9791-3679
* Engineer in Business Administration, Universidad
Técnica Estatal de Quevedo, Quevedo-Ecuador.
pattyrocig76@gmail.com; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
8556-5777
* Certified Public Accountant, Universidad Técnica Estatal
de Quevedo, Quevedo-Ecuador. filiylili84@gmail.com;
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5652-3412
* Doctor of Pedagogical Science, Universidad Técnica
Estatal de Quevedo, Quevedo-Ecuador.
halarcon@uteq.edu.ec; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0077-
6207
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significant problem. Finally, 56% of the children externalized their
emotions easily. These findings indicate that most of the children studied
did not present significant behavioral problems.
Keywords: Students, anxiety, behavior, social cooperation, skills.
Resumen
Se planteó evaluar las habilidades sociales y comportamiento en niños de
3 a 5 años de edad. La investigación se realizó en la Escuela de Educación
Básica “TIWINZA”, ubicada en el cantón Buena Fe, provincia de Los
Ríos. Se evaluó las habilidades a 16 niño(as) mediante encuestas a sus
padres o representantes legales, y para el efecto de empleó la encuesta
propuesta. El 87% y 75% de los niños, se ubicaron dentro de un nivel de
cooperación, interacción e independencia social, medio. En cuanto a las
habilidades sociales, el 75% de los niños se ubicó entre los niveles medio
y déficit significativo. El 62.5%, 56.3%, y 37.5 no presentaron problemas
de aislamiento social, ansiedad/quejas, ni comportamiento egoísta o
egocéntrico, respectivamente, y tan solo un alumno mostró problema
significativo. Finalmente el 56% de los niños exterioriza sus emociones
con facilidad. Estos hallazgos señalan que la mayor parte de los niños(as)
estudiados no presentaron problemas conductuales significativos.
Palabras clave: Alumnos, ansiedad, comportamiento, cooperación social,
destrezas.
Introduction
Social skills and behavioral problems in children under 5 years of
age express behaviors, thoughts and emotions typical of human
beings at an early age, which allow the child to relate to other
individuals of the same species and the surrounding environment. In
this sense, Petrides et al. (2016) and Olivares-Olivares et al, (2019),
point out that early education is essential to create strategies and
skills in children that will facilitate their social orientation, giving
them confidence and security with their family, social and school
environment. However, for Black et al. (2017), these social skills
should be stimulated at an early age, which allow them to interact
socially or relate to others, experience social groupings, and be
accepted by their peers (Guzmán, 2018; Barba-Martín, 2020).
Behavioral problems in children from 3 to 5 years of age, affect early
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childhood education (initial) being the psychological strength of
parents at home, the main basis for the problems to be channeled in
a better way, as this directly influences the children (Gardner et al.,
2016; Morales et al., 2016; Barba-Martín, 2020), Gamboa, Barros,
Barros (2016), Rodríguez (2010) and Ibabe and Bentler (2016),
when problems have their genesis at home, children's behavior is
manifested through emotions such as sadness, anger, fear, anxiety,
tantrums, tantrums.
In Ecuador, education is a right protected in Article 26 of the
Constitution of the Republic (2008), which stipulates that education
is a right of people throughout their lives and an inexcusable duty of
the State. Article 344 recognizes for the first time in the country,
initial education as part of the national education system.
In this sense, this research presents the results of a case study
conducted in a basic education school in the Buena Fe canton,
province of Los Ríos, whose objective was to evaluate social skills
and behavior in children from 3 to 5 years of age.
Materials and methods
Social skills and preschool behavior were estimated according to the
perception of the child's parents and/or mothers, according to a scale
from 0 to 3, where 0 = never, 1 = rarely, 2 = sometimes, 3 = often.
For social skills, the scale was applied in a survey consisting of 34
items, whose results were classified into three functional levels
(social cooperation, social interaction, and social independence),
using the following scale: high functioning, medium, moderate
deficit, and significant deficit.
To determine preschool behavior, the survey consisted of 42 items,
and its results were ordered in five groups: social isolation (AS),
anxiety/somatic complaints (AQ), egocentric/explosive (EG),
attention problems/hyperactivity (AH), antisocial/aggressive (AA),
following guidelines proposed by O'Hare et al. (2015), described by
(Masten, 2018). The scale used was: no problem, average, moderate
problem, significant problem. The total score discriminated in high
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or low level of social skills, as indicated by Gresham (2016).
Data were sorted using the Excel spreadsheet. The results were
analyzed using descriptive statistical tools (percentages and
arithmetic means).
Results
Regarding the social cooperation of children aged 3 to 5 years, most
of them, represented with 87% (14 children), were pigeonholed
within a medium level of cooperation, while moderate and high
functioning deficits shared representation with 6.5% each (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Functional level of social cooperation in children from 3
to 5 years of age from the "TIWINZA" Basic Education School,
Buena Fe canton, Los Ríos province.
The functional levels of social interaction and social independence
detected in the children showed similar results, since in both, 75%
(12 children) are considered within the medium level of social
interaction and independence, and only 25% (4 children) in the high-
functioning level (Figure 2).
14 (87%)
1
(6.5%)
1
(6.5%)
Medium Moderate deficit High functioning
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Figure 2. Functional level of social interaction and social
independence in children from 3 to 5 years of age from the
"TIWINZA" Basic Education School, Buena Fe canton, Los Ríos
province.
Figure 3 shows the final analysis of social skills of the children
evaluated. The medium and significant deficit levels showed a
representativeness of 37.5% (6 children) each, while 18.8% (3
children) were pigeonholed in the moderate deficit level, 6.2% (1
child) a high functioning.
Figure 3. Social skills in children from 3 to 5 years of age from the
"TIWINZA" Basic Education School, Buena Fe canton, Los Ríos
province.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Social interaction Social independence
Number of respondents
Functional Levels
Medium High performance
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Medium Significant deficit Moderate deficit High functioning
Number of children
Scale
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In terms of preschool behavior, social skills may be associated with
the child's relationships with his/her surroundings or environment in
which he/she develops. In this sense, most of those evaluated, 62.5%
(10 children), 56.3% (9 children), and 37.5% (6 children) did not
present problems of social isolation, anxiety/complaints, or selfish
or egocentric behavior, and only one student showed significant
problems. Between three and six children showed average behavior
in these behaviors. However, only one student presented a behavior
surrounded by anxiety and egocentrism (Figure 4).
Figure 4 Diagnosis of social skills (social isolation,
anxiety/complaints, and egocentric/explosive behavior) in children
from 3 to 5 years of age from the "TIWINZA" Basic Education
School, Buena Fe canton, Los Ríos province.
Concomitant with the above, the group of children studied did not
present problems of hyperactivity and aggressive behavior, since
69% and 81% of them fell into the categories without problems and
average. Only one student was detected with hyperactivity behavior
(Figure 5).
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
No problems Average Moderate problem Significant problem
Number of children
Scale
Social isolation Anxiety/Complaints Egocentric/Explosive
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Figure 5 Diagnosis of social skills (attention/hyperactivity and
antisocial/aggressive behavior) in children from 3 to 5 years of age
from the "TIWINZA" Basic Education School, Buena Fe canton,
Los Ríos province.
It is common for children at an early age to express their emotions
completely, externalizing them to their close relatives, a situation
that is reflected in Figure 6, where 56.3% and 25% of the children
can externalize their concerns without problems and on average. In
the case of internalization, most of the students surveyed fell into the
average category.
Figure 6. Externalization and internalization of emotions in children
from 3 to 5 years of age from the "TIWINZA" Basic Education
School, in the Buena Fe canton, province of Los Ríos.
0
2
4
6
8
10
No problems Average Moderate problem Significant
Problem
Number of children
Scale
Attention/Hyperactivity Antisocial/Aggressive
0
2
4
6
8
10
No problems Average Moderate
problem
Significant
problem
Number of children
Scale
Externalization of problems
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Discussion
The response detected in students from 3 to 5 years of age at the
"TIWINZA" Basic Education School, regarding the functional level
of social cooperation, which covers the interaction and independence
of the child, was favorable, since between 75% to 87% showed a
social cooperation behavior within the average. This behavior is to
be expected due to their age, since children in the pre-operational
stage (2 to 6 years), develop intelligence through play, images, and
fantastic drawings, representing functional assimilation according to
their evolution, which is concomitant with what Hodzic et al. (2018)
mentions. In this same context, Bolaños and Stuart (2019) point out
that children are able to act effectively and independently in the
cultural environment when they develop the learning process
together with other people.
It is noteworthy that in the present study, 75% of the students
evaluated were classified at the medium level (37.5%) and
significant deficit (37.5%), so it could be inferred that many parents
are not adequately motivating their children at home. Children's
social skills are closely related to the dedication and motivation of
their family nucleus, as pointed out by Larose et al. (2019), because
it helps to be integrally formed in the process of building the child,
strengthening his or her autonomy.
Regarding social isolation, anxiety, explosive behavior,
hyperactivity and aggressive behavior, most of the children studied
were placed in the no problem and average categories, which would
indicate that in their families there are strategies to channel these
attitudes, strengthen values and self-control. However, attention
should be paid to those students who were classified in the moderate
and significant problem categories, because although they are few,
the problem is present, and appropriate pedagogical strategies should
be designed to address them, not only by the child but also by his or
her family, as mentioned by Loza and Frisancho (2010). For
Fernández-Cabezas et al. (2011), the internalization of problems in
children aged 3 to 5 years generally tends to be a drawback for the
development of social skills, which should be managed from their
homes or family nuclei. This case study showed that 56% of the
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children evaluated had no problems externalizing their emotions and
25% were within the average. While 56% considered that there could
be internalization of their emotions, under certain situations such as
stress, fear, anxiety or sadness, concomitant with that reported by
Alcántara-Canabal et al. (2020), who detected behavioral and
emotional problems in premature children in Asturias, Kingdom of
Spain.
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