Competência acadêmica de crianças do Ensino Fundamental: características sociodemográficas e relação com habilidades sociais

This research investigated academic competence and its relation to social skills and sociodemographic variables in a sample of 257 elementary school students from First through Fourth Grades, using the SSRS scale - Social Skills Rating System. Socioeconomic level was assessed using the “Critério Brasil” scale. Participants were 185 parents and 12 teachers who also rated the children’s social skills. Results showed that 7,9% of the sample had learning difficulties. Girls had higher scores than boys in academic competence. The competence in school was significantly and positively correlated with socioeconomic level. Also, children from private schools had higher scores than those from public schools. There was a significant relationship between social skills and academic competence, the children with higher social skills scores had the better academic competence and were less likely to fail in school. These results confirm previous findings suggesting that social skills interventions in school can affect the students' outcome positively. Keywords: social skills; academic performance; elementary school students; sociodemographic variables.