Comparative Study: Social Competence of Children in the United Arab Emirates and Iraq

Physical, psychological, and socio-cultural traits may vary Globalization has increased the range of differentiation through mass movements, developments in communication technology, and the recent penetration of the values of subcultures in dominant cultures, leading to the concept of multi-cultural societies. Comparative studies are becoming increasingly significant in sociological research, as in this study which investigates the differences in children’s social competence within contemporary communities. To understand social competence, researchers must consider its social context. Analysis of the national context of children’s behavior must be developed to understand the culture of the children of a country, particularly, in a world where the phenomena of globalization and convergence are a reality. The present study aims to identify the differences in the levels of social competence of children from Iraq and the United Arab Emirates by administering a social competence questionnaire to 300 children. The results revealed significant differences.

available, physical structures, activities and routines and their temporal organization and existing emotional atmosphere. Based on the above mentioned facts, it is argued that such elements can be reshaped and tailored to create an ideal environment that helps flourish, develop and encourage children's social competence (Blumberg, et al., 2008).  described social competence as "the personal accumulative knowledge and skills developed by a person in order to navigate safely within life's many choices, difficulties, and opportunities" (Hanand, & Kemple, 2006: p. 242). This definition of social competence encompasses; kindness, fairness, integrity, social justice and responsibility, as well as adopting a good way of living, good attitudes and beliefs about sexuality, and being willing to accept other's opinions. Culture is likely to have a great effect on social values. Certain primary values may be transferred across cultures, although such values may exist at different levels over time. The value of the community is also mentioned as a social value that affects social competence in early childhood . Mackay, (1991) introduced a comparison between two approaches; an approach which deals with children as individuals who are just developing to become as adults, and another approach that considers them as already competent individuals. James and others, (1998) ;Mayall, (2002;2003) and other childhood sociologists agree with this point of view, considering children as competent individuals from birth and studies children by means of their own utterances and sort of interaction, as participating positively in establishing their own private social contexts. In this sort of childhood, the world of the child is formulated in a particular way as to revolve around the adults own social world, since each one considerably influences the other. The understanding obtained from such an approach reveals how they (i.e. children) go through various effective and complicated interactional behaviors and attitudes, often within the realm of older people (Mayall, 2003).
As childhood has been recognized as the most fragile stage in a person's life cycle, Moore and Lippman (2005) argued that morbidities may be prevented during this critical phase of life. Like other researchers, Moore and Lippman call for more indicators at the national and subnational levels that further explain growth patterns, conditions, and happiness of children.
Moore and Halle, (2001) stated that the existing or available indexes (from a rather general point of view) focus on problems or difficulties only and they do not reflect or highlight positive results and outcomes which could be obtained and promoted. Present or current indicators tend only to highlight disorders which need to be 109 mitigated and minimized (Moore, et al., 2004). The lack of problem, hence, differs from prospering. According to Moore and lippman, (2005), it is observed that positive marks or indicators of psychological as well as social strengths were, indeed, scarce in the field of socio-emotional studies (Moore, & Lippman, 2005).

Literature review
Ladd (2007) argued that social competence can be defined as a rather complicated, multi-dimensional term that consists various mental, social, emotional, motivational, and behavioral skills. Furthermore, he added that social competence as a particular phenomenon that covers considerable aspects ranging from social assertion, times of interaction, high self-esteem, in addition to social intellectual skills and charm (Ladd, 2007).
In addition, Farver, and others (2006) merged both of individuals and social goals. They defined social competence considering it as the potentiality of a person to accomplish certain goals in a rather social frame, while being (at the same time) ready to positively interact with others; over time and across settings (Farver, et al., 2006). Social competence was also presented and described as the mechanism of adequately and properly using resources (whether personal or environmental) to reach a person's social aspirations (hussong et. Al., 2005). Shaffer, (2005) added that social skills refer to the ability of having conflict free interactions with other members in a particular community. Social skills require five main pillars or conditions, these are responsibility, cooperation, empathy, assertion, and self-control (Denham, et al., 2006).

Social Competence: Theoretical Perspective
Vaughn and Santos (2007) state that ecocultural theory deals with the ways in which children encourage and develop their own social competencies by means of participating in everyday life activities, whether at home or at school (i.e. in informal or formal situations) in early or pre-school stages, this implies social activities and functions inside children's homes and social events which occur with their own families (including, for example, watching TV or asking them to reveal what they have already learned and understood  Wertsch,1988). It is also argued that 110 social capabilities which result from such interactions may (in one way or another) be rather close to the behavioral norms and activity forms which exist in formal educational environments or settings (Fuller, 2010). When children, enter their kindergarten stage, it is noted that the eco-cultural development of their state of social life and habits do not necessarily contradict the framework of developmental risks. Which various facilities and conditions (such as attentive manner of communication, cooperation, adequate manners which peers, and similar elements that represent the basic requirements for socialization), children become increasingly compatible in various respects, become increasingly compatible, in various respects, which all sorts of behavior which are appreciated and supported by their educators. This sort of behavior conveys children's self-discipline, mutual exchange of information and communication with other people, and self-awareness of unfavorable sorts of behavior (Hair, et al., 2006;Parke & Buriel,1988). On the other hand, when teachers or educators lack the ability of identifying children's behavioral strengths (or are unable to understand children's native or home language), gaps will emerge in children's own competencies. In addition to this, Hair and others (2006) state that the medical observation (of being at risk) may distract specialists from the established ways and procedures in which children are taught to be socially competent members in their own communities (whether at homes or in their own classrooms) (Hair, et al., 2006).

National Characteristics
It is worth mentioning that social competence has its own contributions and employment in various groups, settings and cultural manifestations, especially in terms of common or public educational organizations. In this sense, Ogbu (1981)  Culture is a phenomenon which is continuously dynamic and pervasive. It is always influenced by own behaviors and interactions (Schein, 2004). In his attempt at highlighting the factors and concepts of cultural variation, Sternberg (2004) argued that behaviors differ and vary from one culture to another (i.e. a given behavior that is viewed as smart in a specific culture context may be viewed as stupid in another cultural context). Accordingly, to say that social competence is a universal concept or culture-bound is still a matter of arguments and debate. More research is needed to reveal the impact of age, gender, and culture in the specific and unique contexts of the United Arab Emirates and Iraq culture with reference to social competence (Sternberg, 2004).
Culture, as noted above, has various definitions and interpretations. According to Herbing (1998), there exist 450 different definitions of culture. As far as the term is concerned, we can note that culture is employed (in literature) in various ways and contexts. Despite this diversity, all definitions share the totality of norms and values in that culture studies focus on similarities and variations people from various backgrounds (Straub et al,2002). In general, the overarching objective of culture studies is to focus on the role of culture of all (political, economic, and social) activities of a particular person; hence it is noted that three stages emerge in this field of study; organizational, group-focused, and national. It is also noted that approaches which deal with groups introduce certain models with social identity, and present questions about the results and outcomes of employing group adherence on the other hand Kummer etal., (2012) say that on the organization level, one or multiple schemes can be suggested and employed as a sort of reference when specialists examine individuals as well as organizational behaviors in various settings and contexts. In this respect, many studies were held to examine and focus on norms and values in a particular business context (Kummer, et al., 2012;Sackmann, 1992;Schein, 1990).
The current research aims at comparing between countries, thus it focuses on investigating cultural differences and variations on the national level. National culture research primarily highlights aspects of classifications and comparisons of cultures prevalent in the different countries (Kummer, et al., 2012).
Accordingly, cultural competence is developed and viewed as the ability for interacting efficiently, flexibly and effectively with other people having various racial or ethnic habits and backgrounds cultural competence. In addition deals, with the realization and recognition of sorts of unfair behaviorS or treatment of others. In this sense, cultural competence calls for obtaining social justice in the society (Kostelnik et,al., 2002). Thus, it is the person's culture that determines and decides what can be shared, how much can be shared, what can (or cannot) be said, and the ways in which persons can interact (katz, Mc Cellan, 1997). Cultural sensitivity is a crucial factor. Lack of this cultural sensitivity may cause considerable confusion and fear as far as young children are concerned. When the children are appropriately motivated to reflect their attitudes, feelings and ideas, be open to any new culture, take their opportunities in exploring new experiments, they (i.e. children) will have a rather solid background for appropriate cultural competence (Fry,1994).

Individual Characteristics
It is also believed that pro-social behaviors (including caring, helping, sharing, and politeness) increase during a person's childhood (Benenson, 2003). The development and prevalence of such prosocial behaviors vary or differ from one culture to another. Despite this difference, specialists and scholars still agree that studying prosocial behavior can show the results of the ideologies which prevail in both countries (as in terms of observing the variations which exist among peers and in parent-child interaction for young Iraqi and UAE children).
Meanwhile, physical, verbal, and relational aggression have been highlighted in many cultures and countries as distinctly unacceptable behavior (French et al., 2002;Nelson, 2006). It is worth mentioning that sorts of physical aggression have been rejected and denounced by parents, and are correlated with peer rejection in various countries (Hart, et al., 200;keresten, et al., 2006;and Xu et al, 2004). Evidence shows that cultures with Confucian and collectivistic principles were found to reflect the least or minimum level of aggression (Kerestes, et al., 2006).

Research Methodology Research Hypotheses and Culture
The term "culture" reflects the set of values, behaviors, beliefs and attitudes that are shared by a specific community or society and transformed from one generation to another. The major point is to show how such factors can participate in developing children's social competence. In this respect, Researchers disagree on whether the concept of social competence is a common phenomenon or as culture-bound Two relevant question appear, as far as the current study is concerned, and These questions are: -In social competence affected by community? -Are there considerable differences (in terms of social competence) between the UAE and Iraqi children? Hypothesis 1: 1-There is no significant difference in social competence of UAE and Iraqi Children.
Hypothesis 2: 2-There is no significant differences in the level of social competence of UAE and Iraqi children with reference to gender.
Written parental consent for children's participation was sought from all students in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grades in Iraq and from 113 students in public elementary schools in the UAE. The participants comprised 150 participants from the UAE and 150 participants from Iraq. The Social Competence Scale for Children (SCSC) was administered to all participants. Measurement First: existing relevant literature was examined to identify different constructs constituting social competence in children, as viewed by the experts. The common constructs covered these issues; Tolerance, acceptance of others, satisfaction (in terms of social relations), aggression, and participating (in terms of cultural activities). Second: a preliminary questionnaire presenting the objectives of the present study was constructed and given to 10 experts (PhD level) in the field. Five from the Department of Sociology in Iraq's Baghdad University and five from the Sharjah University, UAE. The experts were asked to identify the main constructs encompassing social competence in children whose ages ranged from 8 to 12 years. They identified the most commonly used constructs for social competence, together with "participating in cultural activities", which was a new construct that is not yet a part of any existing scales.
After the identification of the constructs, the next step was to generate items related to them. For this purpose, the researcher composed a simple questionnaire related to at least 50 behaviors in accordance with the exhibited social competence of children in UAE and Iraqi society generally.
To further substantiate this process, a review was carried out of the existing literature and scales regarding social competence to rule out the possibility of the non-availability of some important behaviors related to the major constructs of social competence. The researcher identified some important behaviors in the literature that were not present in the available indigenous items pool. Three sources were used to rectify this: 10 items from the aggression questionnaire in Buss and Perry's (1992), 10 items from the tolerance questionnaire in Gasser's (1995), and 10 items from the acceptance of others lists in Kadesjö et al.'s (2017) and Gasser's (1995).
Of the pool of 50 behaviors, 30 items were selected for use in this questionnaire. After careful perusal, all the behaviors in the pool were once again scrutinized and evaluated to select those that were the most appropriate for each category of identified constructs. These behaviors were then transformed into statements; for example, "Resolves peer problems on his/her own" and "Acts in a friendly manner toward others". These 30 items were translated and adapted into Arabic on light of their importance to the main construct of social competence.

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Expert's opinions were taken in the translation of selected items. The final pool of items consisted of 30 empirically generated items and 15 items selected from different sources. A total of 30 items was retained for further processing and empirical evaluation, and a fourpoint rating scale was selected: (1) never, (2) seldom, (3) often, and (4) always". A trial was carried out to ensure whether the comprehension level of the questionnaire was suitable for the sample, which was composed of children aged (8)(9)(10)(11)(12) years. A trial of the 30item questionnaire was carried out with the parents of 10 students from grades 3rd-6th. One statement had to be discarded because the parents found the questionnaire too difficult; a few of the statements were subsequently modified by replacing some difficult words with synonyms common in daily use. Following this trial, 25 items were retained for empirical evaluation, comprising 6 negative items and 19 positive items. The scoring system for the four-point rating scale (see above) was reversed for the negative items: (1) always, (2) often, (3) seldom, (4) never.
The SCSC instrument used in the current study was distributed during data collection in April 2017, and 85% of the sociologists consulted agreed on items that would be suitable for the UAE and Iraqi cultures. A reliability test was also performed to maintain the internal consistency of the questionnaire. The result of the Cronbach's Alpha was high, at 0.90 for the UAE and 0.91 for Iraq, across the entire sample.

Date collection
The Current study is both comparative and descriptive, it aims at exploring intercultural social competence for UAE and Iraqi children. The researcher adopted a descriptive survey model as aresearch tool.
The survey was administered to 150 participants from the UAE and 150 participants from Iraq during the academic year 2016-2017. The study covers themes such as social competence and satisfying interaction, relationships, and childhood in both Iraqi and UAE cultures. The sampling procedures varied between countries in terms of the institutions addressed (government schools, private schools), the age of the children, and the grade of school attendance. The survey was administered by the parents.

Procedure
The researcher distributed the survey among the parents of students who had volunteered in the current study. Approximately, two weeks after the initial data collection, self-adhesive removable labels, showing the students' names were placed on the surveys, in order to protect the confidentiality of individual-level information during data collection. Following the process of survey of the required information filling by parents, researchers removed the name labels, leaving a unique, confidential code number on the form.

Data Analysis
The appropriate arithmetic means were used to calculate and identify the social competence of children from an intercultural perspective. In addition, the researcher conducted a test to investigate whether (or not) the concept of intercultural social competence and its relevant dimensions varied with reference to the variables of nationality and gender.

Statistical analysis
Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyze the collected date. These statistics included the mean, standard deviation, and t-test which was used to describe the nature of the date available.

Results
The basic aim of the current study is to find out the social competence of children from Iraq and the UAE (both male and female) as well as the difference between Iraqi and UAE children.
The study required 300 children, 150 Iraqi children and 150 UAE children whose age ranged between eight to twelve years. Table  1 shows the ratios of the participants' age and gender. The mean age was 9.34 years (standard deviation = 1.8 years). The total proportion of male participants was 53% (n = 158), while the total proportion of female participants was 47% (n = 142). Table 1 also indicates the school grade attended, the ages of the children. There exist no significant differences in the level of social competence of UAE and Iraqi Children. Table 2 shows the arithmetic means as well as standard deviations with reference to children's perception of intercultural social competence and its relevant dimension.
As noted before, the selected children were form Iraq and UAE, As shown below in Table 2. Descriptive statistics are used for social competence mean scores. The t-test results indicated that the differences between Iraqi and UAE children regarding the social competence scale (t = 6.44, p = 0.00) were statistically significant. There exists no significant differences in the level of social competence of UAE and Iraqi children with reference to gender.
Hypothesis 2 was also rejected by the data. Table 3 outlines Iraqi and UAE descriptive statistics of male children for social competence mean scores. A t-test result indicated that the differences between Iraqi and UAE males for the social competence scale (t = 6.59, p = 0.00) were statistically significant. The relationship between cultural differences and social competence; evidence shows that considerable differences were detected with reference to social competence of Iraqi and UAE children (Hypothesis 1). The results presented in Table 2 tell us that UAE children's social competence was considerably higher (M=72.00) than Iraqi children's social competence (M=65.55). This increased or higher level of social competence is attributed to the wider opportunities of openness for UAE school children in addition to the better mental and intellectual environments they are surrounded by. Added to that is the definite fact that UAE schools and educational institutes contain highly advanced facilities in comparison with their counterparts in Iraq. The obtained levels of difference in terms of social competence definitely reflect differences in the cultural beliefs and values for the for the children in both countries.
Social competence appears to be a culturally specific construct; however, although it carries universal meanings at the theoretical level, it largely varies at the skills level because certain social skills are given greater importance in UAE culture than in Iraq. For example, during the research undertaken on forgiveness and rejection of sectarianism, these attributes were found to be considered valuable social skills in the UAE but were of less importance in Iraqi society.

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This indicated that there was a need to identify different required constructs for a child to be considered socially competent in a UAE socio-cultural context, together with its overall understanding. To resolve this, an indigenous SCSC was developed, the psychometric properties of which were determined for each of the societies under consideration.
The relationship between social competence and gender difference; as shown in Table 3; it was found that the average of social competence scores considerably varies between females and males. Thus, when we compare the social competence scores, we find that the score for male children was (M=65.65), whereas female children got (M=72.25) the figures above reveal that, without any dispute, females had a higher level of social competence than their male counterparts. This finding agrees with Hypothesis 1 and other previous studies (Miller et al., 1986;Musun-Miller, 1993;Walker et al., 2002). The gender differences between the two countries are comparable within the same cultural environment.
It is important to mention here that the results obtained in this study agree with similar studies and research including (for example Campbell (1991), and Margets (2000). The identified differences were also anticipated in these studies focusing on Arabic countries. On average, females scored higher ratings on positive behavior than males. These gender differences likely reflect societal beliefs and values. Suitable gender roles and gender-specific behaviors are acquired, guided, and transmitted by the available cultural stereotypes and interactions (Deaux, 1998). In Islamic societies such as those in Iraq and the UAE, girls' roles are stereotyped. They are expected to adopt the motherhood roles and to be more co-operative in household work than boys of their age. Submission, kindness, gentleness, responsiveness, compassionateness, and prosocial attitudes are all seen as part of girls' behavior from a very early age (Nourani, 1998). The society turns blind eye to boys who do not exhibit these behaviors; thus, they are more outgoing and less cooperative in terms of household tasks. In this light, stereotypical gender roles prescribe more other-oriented and well-controlled behavior for girls than for boys, and consequently, it is possible that social pressure on girls to display such behavior is stronger than for boys.

Conclusions:
In sum, the findings of the current study supported the reliability and validity of the Social Competence Scale for Children (SCSC). The SCSC, which is related to the social competence in children whose aged ranged between eight and twelve years represented five factors; the acceptance of others, toleration, satisfaction in social 118 relationships, aggression, and participation in cultural activities and measures. This scale is also useful for assessing the social competence in children generally. Since the SCSC only contains 30 items, it is simple and efficient to administer. A variety of people can potentially use it: teachers, aides, speech pathologists, parents, and so on. It is implemented in a child's natural play environment, thus making it cost effective, especially for schools. The SCSC can be used to identify social deficits in children who struggle socially, and can be used as a guide to writing social Individualized Education Program goals. Lastly, the SCSC could also be used within private practice settings as a tool for identifying and determining the nature of social interventions that are needed as well as for setting goals for these. Accordingly, it can be argued here that the proposed SCSC has proved as a valuable tool for assessing the investigating the social competence for UAE and Iraqi children at this age (i.e eight to twelve years), with or without identifying who faces a sort of social struggle.
Based on the above mentioned findings and observations, it can be concluded that there are considerable differences in terms of social competence between female and male children. This indicates that the second null hypothesis was also rejected.
Due attention must be given to social competence, because of its great impact in sharpening and supporting the identity of children in this critical age. Thus, the null hypothesis, "No significant difference in the level social competence of males and females," was rejected. The mean score of female students was greater than that of male students, indicating that female students were socially more competent than male students.
For children, primary school education was seen as a sensitive and critical time in the context of their academic and professional careers. Care should be taken to improve children's social competence either by specialized training, or by incorporating social competence in the primary school curriculum. More research is required in social competence with respect to stress control and the mental health of school children in both Iraq and the United Arab Emirates. More specifically, the Iraqi government should take additional care to improve the levels of social competence skills for the Iraqi students, with a view to limiting the differences which could negatively affect their future lives, careers, and perspectives. References