Resumen de Social skills and academic achievement of adolescent immigrants in school settings

Sofía Guimaraes, Ida Lemos, Cristina Nunes

• Like many other European countries, Portugal has during the last decade, seen an increase in immigration, which has resulted in a need for more research focusing on the impact of immigration amongst the younger population who face multiple challenges in their host country.

  The aim of the present study was to examine the relation between social skills, academic achievement and a range of family characteristics in a sample of 98 school adolescent immigrants in the region of Algarve, Portugal. The Self-report Form of the Social Skills Rating System was used and data was gathered about the students’ academic achievement and family related variables such as:

  parental employment and qualifications, number of years in the country and family structure.

  The results show some interesting group differences between first- and second-generation adolescent immigrants in their perceived social skills in terms of Self-control and Cooperation, with the second generation group reporting significantly lower levels on these two subscales. Although no group differences were found in terms of academic achievement, there was for all the adolescents a significant positive correlation between academic results and their reported levels of Assertion and Self-control. On the other hand, school retention amongst these adolescents was negatively associated with levels of Empathy. The results are discussed in relation to social skills intervention in school settings.