Social skills, social support, and psychosocial adjustment

0191-8869/93 $6.00+0.00 Copyright c: 1993 Pergamon Press Ltd

Person. indiuid. D@ Vol. 15, No. 3, PP. 275-280, 1993 Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved

SOCIAL

RONALD Department

SKILLS,

SOCIAL SUPPORT, ADJUSTMENT

E. RIGGIO,* of Psychology,

KRISTIN California

P. WATRING

2 Nooember

PSYCHOSOCIAL

and BARBARA THROCKMORTON

State University,

(Received

AND

Fullerton,

CA 92634-9480,

U.S.A.

1992)

Summary-This study examined the interrelations of a standardized, multidimensional measure of social skills and various self-report measures related to the psychosocial adjustment of college students. One hundred and thirty-six undergraduates were administered the Social Skills Inventory, the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale, an adaptation of the Dimensions of Social Support Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and self-report measures of participation in college activities, college satisfaction, and a general life satisfaction measure. Correlational analyses revealed that possession of social skills was positively correlated with perceived social support and with most of the measures of psychosocial adjustment. Regression analysis indicated that social skills combined with perceived social support predicted certain aspects of adjustment in college students, particularly satisfaction with college, satisfaction with life in general, and reduced perceptions of loneliness.

A rapidly growing body of research is examining the role that social skills, or social competence, plays in fostering healthy psychosocial adjustment. For example, in the past two decades, clinical psychologists have been exploring the relationships between social skill deficits and psychopathology (Phillips, 1978; Trower, Bryant & Argyle, 1978). In child development, the acquisition of social skills is considered critical to the healthy psychological adjustment of children and adolescents (Matson & Ollendick, 1988; Rubin & Ross, 1982). Social skills are also believed to be crucial to the development and maintenance of healthy interpersonal relationships across the lifespan (Hollin & Trower, 1986; Riggio & Zimmerman, 1991). Thus, there seems to be little doubt that possession of social skills is an important determinant of adequate psychosocial adjustment. A considerable number of studies have investigated the relationships between social skills and adjustment in clinical populations (e.g. Hersen & Bellack, 1976; Paul & Lentz, 1977) and in children (e.g. Cartledge & Milburn, 1986; Matson & Ollendick, 1988). However, there has been very little research examining the links between social skills and psychosocial adjustment in normal, adult populations. One reason that social skills are relatively understudied in normal, adult populations stems from difficulties in assessment. Traditionally, social skills are measured through detailed behavioral assessments that require observation of multiple samples of social behavior (Asher & Hymel, 1981; Eisler, 1976). Such detailed assessments are easier to obtain with patients in institutions or children in classroom settings, than they are with adult groups. However, the recent development of several self-report measures of social skills, such as the Social Skills Inventory (SSI; Riggio, 1986, 1989), will make it easier to explore the relationships between possession of social skills and indexes of psychosocial adjustment. The SSI is a 90-item, self-report measure of basic social/communication skills. The SSI is composed of six scales, each measuring a specific communication ability. These six scales represent three basic communication skill dimensions: expressivity, communication sending ability, sensitivity, communication receiving/decoding ability, and control, ability to regulate communication. Each of these three skills occurs in two separate domains, the nonverbal, or emotional, domain and the verbal, or social, domain. Thus, the six scales of the SSI are labeled Emotional Expressivity (EE), Emotional Sensitivity (ES), Emotional Control (EC), Social Expressivity (SE), Social Sensitivity (SS), and Social Control (SC). The summed, total score of these six SSI scales is a *To whom

correspondence

should

be addressed. 215

276

RONALD E. RIGGIOetal.

general measure of global social skill, or social competence (see Riggio, Messamer & Throckmorton, 1991). Difficulties in psychosocial adjustment in nonclinical populations, that likely stem from social skill deficits, are often expressed by terms such as “loneliness,” “shyness,” or “social anxiety,” The past decade has seen a tremendous increase in research on these three topics (e.g. Jones, Cheek & Briggs, 1986; Leary, 1983; Peplau & Perlman, 1982). Some of this research indicates that these three dimensions are themselves intercorrelated (Anderson & Harvey, 1988; Bruch, Kaflowitz & Pearl, 1988; Jones, 1986), and there is some evidence that possession of social skills is negatively related to loneliness, social anxiety, and self-reported shyness (Jones & Carpenter, 1986; Jones. Hobbs & Hockenbury, 1982; Riggio, 1986; Sloan & Solano, 1984; Wittenberg & Reis, 1986). Moreover, therapeutic interventions designed to overcome adjustment problems such as shyness often involve some form of enhancement of social skills (e.g. Glass & Shea, 1986; Phillips, 1986; Zimbardo, 1977). Thus, there are obvious links between social skills and difficulties in psychological adjustment manifesting themselves as feelings of loneliness, shyness, or social anxiety. The relationship between an individual’s possession of social skills and psychosocial adjustment is likely partially mediated by the individual’s ability to develop and maintain high quality interpersonal relationships with others. Research has shown positive correlations between measures of social skill and indexes of social support (e.g. Cohen, Sherrod & Clark, 1986; Riggio & Zimmerman, 1991; Sarason, Sarason, Hacker & Basham. 1985). Thus, an individual’s social network, and ability to obtain social support from members of the social network, may be important mediating variables that help to explain how possession of social skills facilitates psychosocial adjustment. This study explored the relationships between a standardized, self-report measure of social skills and self-report measures of psychosocial adjustment in a group of college students. The measures of psychosocial adjustment consisted of standardized, self-report measures of loneliness, self-esteem, life satisfaction, and well-being, along with self-reports of degree of participation in campus activities. Because it is believed that the relationship between social skills and psychosocial adjustment is in part mediated by the quality and quantity of social relationships one has with significant others, the relationships between measures of social networks/support and measures of both social skills and social adjustment were also examined. Specifically, it is hypothesized that possession of social skills will be positively correlated with measures of psychosocial adjustment, and that social skills combined with supportive social networks, will have an additive effect in predicting psychosocial adjustment.

METHOD Subjects Ss were 136 undergraduate student volunteers who were recruited from either introductory psychology courses (n = 82) or from the student dormitories (n = 54). Students from the psychology courses received course credit for their participation. Dormitory students were offered a chance to win two $100 prizes in a lottery drawing in exchange for their participation.

Procedure Ss completed the following measures: Background questionnaire. This self-report instrument was used to assess demographic factors, such as sex, age, and year in school. SSZ(Riggio, 1989). The SSI is a 90-item self-report measure of basic social/communication skills. The inventory consists of 6 separate scales. Alpha coefficients for the internal consistency of the six SSI scales range from 0.62 to 0.87. Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, Peplau & Cutrona, 1980). This is a 20-item self-report measure assessing loneliness. Internal consistency of the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale has been reported to be as high as 0.94. Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 196.5). This widely-used, IO-item scale, assesses general

Social skills and adjustment

211

self-esteem and feelings of self-worth. Internal consistency of the Rosenberg scale has been reported as alpha = 0.92. Social Support Scale. This scale was adapted from the Dimensions of Social Support Scale developed by Cohen (1977). It is designed to measure both breadth of social networks and self-reported amount of social support obtained from those networks. The scale requires subject to list members of social networks by category (spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend, close friends, relatives, co-workers, neighbors) and rate each member in terms of the amount of social support provided, using four 5-point rating scales. This Social Support Scale yields both a measure of social networks, as defined by the total number of supportive individuals included on the scale, as well as an average index of social support created from summing the ratings and dividing by the total number of supportive individuals listed. Life Satisfaction Scale(Neugarten, Havighurst & Tobin, 1961). This is a 20-item, self-report measure of general life satisfaction. Internal consistency of this scale has been demonstrated as high as 0.87. College Satisfaction Scale. This 15-item scale is adapted from the College Satisfaction Scale created by Vinsel, Brown, Altman and Foss (1980). The scale measures a student’s satisfaction with college, including contentment with social and academic aspects of university life. Rand General Well-Being Scale. This is a 22-item, self-report measure of general well-being developed by the Rand Corporation (Ware, Johnston, Davies-Avery & Brook, 1979). Questions ask about general physical and psychological well-being during the past month. Participation in college activities. Adapted from Vinsel et al’s College Activity Scale (1980), this scale measures a student’s participation in extracurricular activities, including being a spectator or participant in athletics, campus social or religious organizations, or campus government.

RESULTS Table 1 presents the zero-order correlations among all measures used in this study. As expected, the measures psychosocial adjustment -loneliness, self-esteem, life satisfaction, satisfaction with college, and well-being -were strongly intercorrelated in the expected patterns. That is, the self-esteem, satisfaction, and well-being measures were positively correlated, while loneliness was strongly negatively correlated with the other measures of adjustment. In regard to the relationships between the social skills/competence measure and the various measures of adjustment, the total score on the SSI was significantly correlated with several of the measures of psychosocial adjustment (see Table 2). In particular, total SSI score was negatively correlated with loneliness, positively correlated with the measures of self-esteem, life and college satisfaction, and positively related to measures of participation in college activities and use of college services. The SSI was not correlated with the measures of general well-being and knowledge of college services. A series of multiple regressions were run regressing each of the measures of psychosocial adjustment and the measures of participation in college activities on the total score on the SSI and perceived social support, with the predictors always entered in this order. The results of these regression analyses are presented in Table 3. As can be seen, the combination of adjusted total score on the SSI and perceived average social support accounted for reasonable amounts of the variance in loneliness, self-esteem, general life satisfaction, satisfaction with college, and participation in college activities, with little variance accounted for in general well-being and knowledge and use of college services. These results provide partial support for the notion that social skills combined with a supportive social network leads to better psychosocial adjustment in college students.

Table

I. Zero-order

Loneliness (UCLA-R) Self-esteem Life satisfaction College satisfaction

correlations

among measures

of psychosocial

Self-esteem

Life sat.

Cal. sat.

-0.58

-0.61 0.60

-0.39 0.3 I 0.45

adjustment Well-being -0.43 0.51 0.52 0.43

RONALV

278 Table 2. Zero-order correlations between measures social support, and psychosocial adjustment/college ns = 131-136) SSI-total Loneliness Self-esteem Life satisfaction College satisfaction General well-being Participation in college activities Knowledge of college services use of college services SSI total *P

<

0.05. two-tailed.

-0.45* 0.27’ 0.32’ 0.3 I * 0.08 0.29*

SIX. supp. -0.36* 0.07 0.20* 0.14 0.05 -0.26*

0.02

0.23*

0.20*

0.17 0.23*

E. RIGGIO

of social skill, activities (all

et al.

Table 3. Multlple

regressions of adjustment measures on social skills and perceived socml support

Sot. net. sire -0.05 0.00 0.00 0.13 0.03 0.22* -0.02 0.04 0.06

Dep

Beta SSI total

Beta social support

variable

R2

Loneliness Self-esteem Life satisfaction College satlsfactlon General well-being Participation in college actlvitles Knowledge of college serwces Use of college serwces

0.49 0.28 0.33 0.33 0.13

0.23 0.06 0.10 0.1 I 0.00

-0.46** 0.27** 0.31** 0.27** 0.1 I

0.29

0.07

0.29**

0.00

0.04

0.00

0.01

0.04

0.21

0.03

0.19**

0.05

‘P < 0.10; **p

Adi.

R’

- 0.148 0.04 0.10 0.15** 0.05

< 0.05

DISCUSSION

The results of the present investigation yielded partial support for the hypotheses that possession of social skills/competence is directly linked to psychosocial adjustment in college students, and that social skills, together with the availability of supportive social networks, has a combined effect of fostering student adjustment. Specifically, possession of global social skills was linked to decreased feelings of loneliness, to increased self-esteem, satisfaction with college and life in general, and to participation in college activities--all measures of college student adjustment. Perceived social support was also linked to most of these adjustment indices, and a combination of social skills and social support accounted for significant amounts of variance in student adjustment and participation in college activities. The one adjustment variable that was consistently not correlated with either social skills or perceived social support was general well-being. However, general well-being, as measured by the Rand scale, deals with such issues as depression, psychosomatic symptomatology, and anxiety-areas that may be beyond simple psychosocial adjustment in groups of “normal” college students. Although the relationships between social skills/support and adjustment were most often straightforward, with both social skills and social support being positively related to most of the adjustment measures, there was one notable exception. This was the negative relationship between social support and participation in college activities (e.g. intramural sports, student organizations, etc.). This finding was opposite to the prediction that students who participate in more college activities would have higher levels of perceived support. There are two possible explanations for this unexpected result. First, the negative relationship between perceived social support and participation in college activities may have something to do with the student population used in the present study. The students are drawn from a state university that can be characterized as a “commuter campus.” Even the few dormitories are more like apartments than true dormitories. Most students on this campus work on the average of 15-25 hr per week, carry close to a full load of classes, are older, and are more likely to be married and have families than are the typical college students. Perhaps, students with supportive social networks must spend so much time maintaining these networks of family and friends that they have little time for college activities. Students without these networks have more time free for extracurricular activities. A second possible explanation is that students are motivated to participate in college activities as a means of meeting others in the hopes of establishing and nurturing supportive relationships. Thus, the lack of supportive networks is the rnotivating force, and possession of social skills is the ability, that allows students to be successful in participating in college activities. There are certain limitations to the present investigation. This study relied on self-report assessments of social skills, social support, and psychosocial adjustment. Some of the correlations among the various measures, particularly intercorrelations among the psychosocial adjustment. instruments, are likely due to shared method variance. However, most of the measurement instruments have been used extensively in previous research and they are well-validated. Another drawn from a single non-residential limitation relates to the particular student population, (“commuter”) university. This may limit the generalizability of the findings, particularly in light

Social skills and adjustment

219

of recent research that shows that the factors that affect adjustment to college life may differ somewhat for students of residential vs non-residential universities (see Pascarella & Chapman, 1983). In conclusion, one purpose of the present study was to find empirical support for the connections between possession of social skills and adjustment in non-clinical Ss. Another objective was to provide additional evidence for the validity of the SSI as a measure of global social skill/competence. The fact that scores on the SSI were more strongly and consistently correlated with the various adjustment measures than was the perceived social support measure, and to participation in college activities, seems to verify that the SSI is indeed assessing aspects of interpersonal competence. This additional validity information, coupled with previous validity studies (e.g. Riggio, 1989), indicates that the SSI may be a useful tool for researchers who are investigating the role of social skills in coping with stress (see Cohen et al., 1986; Sarason et al., 1985) for researchers examining the development and maintenance of interpersonal relationships (see Riggio & Zimmerman, 1991) and for researchers interested in developing social skill training programs as interventions for fostering psychosocial adjustment (see Trower et al., 1978). Acknowledgements-This research was supported by intramural grants from the California State University, Fullerton Foundation to the first author. We would like to thank Marie Ramaekers and Rochele Kadish for their assistance in data collection.

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