Children's social sensitivity and the relationship to interpersonal competence, intrapersonal comfort, and intellectual level.

A method of measuring children's social sensitivity is described and the relationship between social sensitivity and certain variables hypothesized as important in its development is investigated. Using a series of four tape recordings depicting two adults in happy, angry, anxious, and sad interactions, social sensitivity was assessed in third and fifth grade children. Age, intellectual ability and interpersonal adjustment contributed most to the development of accurate social perceptions. Surprisingly, there were no significant effects on social sensitivity due to sex, ordinal position, or size of family.