Age, social‐cognitive development, and the use of comforting strategies

Abstract

Although considerable research indicates that both functional communication skills and prosocial behaviors increase across childhood and adolescence, relatively few studies have examined developmental and individual differences in the prosocial communication skill of comforting. The present study examines relationships among age, social‐cognitive development, and comforting skill and investigates how these relationships change over the course of development. Assessments of several social‐cognitive indices and the use of listener‐sensitive comforting strategies were obtained from 137 students enrolled in grades one through 12. All of the social‐cognitive indices were moderate to strong predictors of comforting skill, and remained moderate predictors even when controlling for the effects of age. Each of the indices made an independent contribution to the prediction of comforting skill. Moreover, the relationship between social‐cognitive ability and comforting skill apparently is contingent on age; social‐cognitive ability became an increasingly strong predictor of comforting skill with advancing age. Contrary to expectations, the relationship between age and comforting skill was found not to vary over the course of childhood and adolescence.

Notes

Brant R. Burleson is Assistant Professor of Communication, Purdue University.