Social Skills and Intergenerationality in Family Relationships

Abstract

Given the importance of family ties for social skills learning and development, as well as the role of behavior transmission from parent to child, the aim of this paper is to present two studies on intergenerational family relationships. The first study assessed 142 dyads of adult parents and adolescents, and the results showed evidence of intergenerational transmission of various social skills, especially among mothers and their adolescent children. Furthermore, the data show the influence of the relationship between parents and adolescents in the repertoire of social skills of children, suggesting the importance of this relationship. The second study investigated 113 dyads of older parents and adult children. Similarities were found for 29 of the 38 evaluated social skills as well as between the overall scores of social skills for both age groups, which highlights the intergenerational transmission of social skills for elderly parents to their adult children. One has found positive correlations between social skills and relationship quality assessed by parents and children. We discuss the evidence of the intergenerational transmission of social skills and the impact on the quality of family relationships, and the implications of these results for planning intervention programs in social skills and quality of life.

CITE AS:

Braz, A.C., Comodo, C.N., Del Prette, Z., Del Prette, A., Fontaine, A.M.G. (2013). Habilidades sociales e intergeneracionalidad en las relaciones familiares. Apuntes de Psicología, 13, 77-84.