Social Competence of 5-year-olds during Societal Crisis

Abstract Concerns about children’s social development arise whenever there are major societal crises that change the social environment of children. The latest example of this was during 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic affected millions of children around the world and provided a unique situation to observe factors that affect social development under crisis situations. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between children’s social development through social competence and its relation to individual (child’s gender and health) and family-related factors (parent’s gender, level of education and psychological distress, and family structure, child’s sibling relations, and family’s socioeconomic situation). Additionally, pandemic’s influence on children’s social competence was examined through children’s absence from early childhood education and care (ECEC). The data used consisted of survey data of 1451 Finnish parents concerning their child. Results of path analysis showed that child’s gender, child’s developmental or health related issues, parental distress, and parent’s gender were related to child’s social competence, whereas absence from ECEC was not.