Leadership characteristics in elementary children
One of the unexpected characteristics of elementary school children who exhibit
social leadership qualities is that they are less likely to use accommodation as
a strategy to solve conflicts with a friend, according to an Israeli study in
The Journal of Genetic Psychology.
"Close friendships may require a different set of skills, perhaps somewhat
independent of the skills relevant to the larger setting of a group," write the
researchers. They note that this finding could also reflect a cultural bias. In
Israel, to accommodate another child may be seen as a sign of weakness.
Among the more predictable qualities of social leadership identified in this
study are low social anxiety,
secure orientation to peer, higher levels of relationship-maintenance goal,
lower levels of revenge goal in close friendships and positive self-perceptions.
Girls who had social leadership qualities were more likely to come from larger
families.
Participants were 260 4th- and 5th-grade students (126
boys, 134 girls) from 9.5-11.5 years attending Israeli schools mostly in lower
middle-class neighborhoods.
The following measures were used: The Self-Perception Profile for
Children, the Social Anxiety Scale for Children-Revised and Children's Goals and
Strategies in Response to Conflicts Within a Friendship, Attachment Orientations
Regarding Peers and Teacher-Child Rating Scale.
"In sum, these findings show that elementary school children who exhibited
social leadership qualities had internalized a positive self-perception, felt
confident in social situations, and had a secure and prosocial orientation
toward peers and friends.
"These results also add important substantiation to the claim that a secure
attachment can be conceived as a basis for the capacity to become a leader," the
authors write. "Also, they add to the growing literature indicating that
children who have internalized a secure attachment are in a better position over
a wide array of positive developmental outcomes than others."
"Socioemotional Characteristics of Elementary School Children Identified
as Exhibiting Social Leadership Qualities," by Miri Scharf and Ofra Mayseless,
The Journal of Genetic Psychology, Volume 170, Number 1, 2009, pp. 73-94.
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