The Relationship Between Social Skills and Behavioral Problems in Children With Visual Impairment

Previous research has indicated that there is a significant correlation between social skills and problem behaviors. Children with poor social skills usually show some kind of problem behavior. Both poor social skills and problem behaviors negatively influence psychosocial functioning as well as academic achievement. Children with visual impairment often have problems in social functioning throughout their whole life as a consequence of impaired vision, but also as a consequence of insufficient and adverse social experiences. The most common problem behaviors these children experience are social withdrawal and aggression. The goal of this study was to define the relationship between social skills performance and behavioral problems in students with visual impairment. The study was comprised of 39 parents of teenage children with visual impairment (13–17 years old). The children attended regular state schools and a school for the blind in the Republic of Croatia. The data were collected using the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS) developed by Gresham and Elliott (1990) and were analyzed by quasi-canonical correlation analysis using ROBKAN software. The obtained results confirmed the correlation between social skills and problem behaviors in children with visual impairment. Children with poorer social skills had more problems with behavior. The correlation was particularly evident in the domain of cooperation, as more responsible and more cooperative children had significantly less problems with behavior.