ASSESSMENT OF STUDENTS’ SOCIAL FUNCTIONING IN SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

The evaluation of students’ social functioning implies an analysis of positive and negative behaviours, i.e. the evaluation of social competence and antisocial behaviour. The first part of the article is dedicated to defining the concepts of social competence and social skills, and the role of these constructs in the development of antisocial behaviour. Presented are the results of a research on social func­tioning of the students of nine schools in Belgrade (N=1398). The data about the studentswere gathered from their teachers and class masters. We used the School Social Behaviour Scale - SSBS-2 for the analysis. The prominent results are the following: 82% of the stu­dents are on an average or above average level of social functioning; a deficit of social skills was found in 12% of the students; 12% of the students exhibit antisocial behaviour; in 6% of the students both the deficit of social competencies and antisocial behaviour wasfound; there is a statistically significant moderate correlation between the level of social competence and the level of antisocial behaviour (.04). The final part presents the results of the evaluation of the programmes for enhancing social functioning and offers some sug­gestions for improving the efficiency of the programmes which are used in our educational institutions.