Social Competence of Students with Mild Handicaps and Low Achievement: A Comparative Study

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Abstract
This study compared social competence ratings of 566 elementary-age students (362 boys and 204 girls), using the Walker-McConnell Scale of Social Competence and School Adjustment (SSCSA) (Walker & McConnell, 1988). Comparisons were made across five subject groups: Learning disabled (LD) (n = 135), mentally retarded (MR) (n = 109), behavior disordered (BD) (n = 114), low-achieving (LA) (n = 100), and average, regular education (RE) (n = 108). Significant group effects (p <.0001) were found on the three subscales and the total score of the SSCSA. Post-hoc pairwise contrasts found that all social competence scores of the RE group were significantly higher (p <.05) than the other four groups. The scores of the BD group were significantly lower (p.05) than all other groups on the SSCSA total score and on SSCSA subscale 1, a factor comprised of behavioral items related to empathy, sensitivity, and self-restraint. The LD, LA, and MR groups could not be accurately discriminated from each other by social competence ratings. Girls were rated as having significantly higher levels of social competence than boys (p <.0001). Implications of this investigation for social-behavioral screening, assessment and intervention are discussed.