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The study was designed to explore the relationship between children's creativity and social competence. Three kindergartens in Taiwan were purposefully selected to diversity parents' socioeconomic backgrounds. The sample was composed of 142 Taiwanese parents with children aged írom 4 to 7 years old. Parents and teachers evaluated children's social competence and creativity by filling out a questionnaire. Correlation analyses revealed a significant positive relationship between parents' and teachers' ratings of· children's social competence. However, no significant relationship exists between parents' and teachers' ratings of children's creative behaviors. Children who were reported by their parents as creative were socially competent at home and in school settings. In the correlation analysis among children's creativity and parents' backgrounds, parents with high education levels and high house hold income have highly creative children. These findings reveal a positive relationship between children's social competence and creativity and point out the influence of parents' socio-economic status on children's development.
Keywords: social competence, creativity, children, parents' socio-economic status
Definitions of social competence
A school is a small society where children have to leam appropriate and skillful social functions, such as displaying prosocial behavior, helping, sharing, and cooperating, which are crucial to social interactions with others (Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 2006). Social competence is an important area of development for children. Research (Ziv, 2013; Cooper, Moore, Powers et al., 2014; Blandón, Calkins, Grimm et al., 2010) has shown the value and positive impact of social competence on children's school readiness, future academic success, andpeer acceptance.
Previous literature defines social competence in various ways. Socially competent people need to use social judgements to determine appropriate behaviors and thoughts for successful social interactions (Wagenfeld, 2005). Problem solving skills (Guralnick& Neville, 1997) used to solve social conflicts with others and appropriateness or success in achieving personal goals in social interaction (Rubin & Rose-Krasnor, 1992; Robin, Bukowski, & Parker, 1998) are commonly described as social competence. Adjusting behaviors to fit well in a social group and forming and maintaining a positive relationship with peers are other common definitions of social competence (Raven & Ziegler, 1997; Robin, Bukowski, & Parker, 2006). Several researchers viewed that social context should be considered in developing healthy social interactions (Bronfenbrenner, 1989; Chen & French, 2008). Social skills or behaviors valued in...