Abstract:

Social competencies have been identified by the European Commission as one of the most important precursors of prosperity and well-being in its Member States (EU 2005). In fact, social competence is a multidimensional construct, with emotional, cognitive and contextual dimensions (Lemos & Meneses, 2002). It includes interactions between individual characteristics, social demands, and contextual characteristics. Social competencies reflect adjustment in family, school, work, and in society in general, in life span (Schoon, 2009). According to Savickas (2005), it is within social relationships that individuals develop their work projects and, in this context, acquire knowledge about their efforts and commitment. However, despite the growing recognition of the importance of social competencies in adaptive functioning within a variety of contexts across life span, few scientific researches combine social competence with the concerns of career education (Pinto et al., 2012). Career social competence is understood to be the ability to deal, wisely and in a social adapted way, with educational career situations or informal career learning situations (Candeias & Almeida, 2005; Candeias, Araújo, & Taveira, 2009). In fact it comprehends taking into account that self concept refers to a self evaluation or a self perception, and it regards the personal beliefs about his or her own attributes (Hadley, Hair, & Moore, 2008). Thus, the aim of this study is to analyze how self concept influences their social competence in career education situations. Participants are 306 adolescents; 163 are young girls (53.3%) and 143 are young boys (46.7%), aged between 12 and 16 years old (µ=13.28±.590), attending three Portuguese public schools. Instruments were the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale (PHCSCS-2 - Piers & Herzberg, 2002; adapted for the Portuguese population by Veiga in 2006) and the Social Competency Assessment in Career Scale (PACS-Car; adapted for the Portuguese population by Candeias, Araújo, & Taveira, 2009). The PHCSCS-2 was used to measure self-concept and PACS-Car was used to evaluate the perceived career social competence. The PHCSCS-2 is intended for young people self-assessment of behavioral, intellectual and school status, physical attributes and appearance, anxiety, popularity, satisfaction and happiness. The PACS-Car measures the level of perceived competence and its relative facility or difficulty in dealing with different interpersonal situations with peers and significant adults, in career education and informal career learning situations. Regression analysis results indicate a significant relationship between self concept and social competence in career dimensions. Implications are drawn to the development of future career interventions that promote social competence.

Keywords:

Social competencies, social competence in career, self-concept.