AIM

To measure the social maturity of children using vineland social maturity scale.
INTRODUCTION
Social maturity is related to how well people understand the nature of the social world they live
within. It has been variously defined and described at different age levels for children. In every
culture there is a process of socialization in which the individual moves from an uncultured and
unskilled stage to a condition of interpersonal affiliation and harmony as a member of his
society. Therefore " the degree of a child’s social maturity can be defined as the level of
significant social behavior attained at a given age. Social maturity may be assessed according to
the way it is manifested in the child behavior. persons with intellectual impairments experience
varying degrees of deficits in social skills " which can lead to isolation "stigmatization" lack of
coping skills" increased maladaptive behaviors" and increased rates of psychopathology.

The ultimate aim of effective social development in status-hood is the attainment of

social maturity. A social mature adult shows a few important characteristics. He is able
to adapt himself successfully to his fellowmen and to adapt is fellowmen to himself. It
includes such behavioral forms as group compatibility, kindness and sympathy, fair play
emotional adjustability, courtesy and politeness, dependability, self-confidence, co-
operation, leadership and cheerfulness.

Theories

Argyris Maturity Theory : presented by Chris Argyris in Personality and Organization, is

one of the many theories that seek to explain the human nature and behavior. According
to this theory, a persons’ development is processed along a continuous break of an
immaturity situation to a maturity situation. A mature person is characterized for being
active, independent, self-confident and self-controlled. On the contrary, an immature
person is passive, dependant, has lack of confidence and feels need of control by others.
Many times, the self organizations functioning (in terms of work specialization, command
chain, delegation level, control level, etc.), form in themselves a deterrent for the
employees to achieve in a natural way a high maturity level. Many times organizations
expect that their cooperators be passive, dependant, that have a short term perspective
and that produce without requesting a high control level. According to Argyris, whenever
an employee with high maturity level is before a situation like this tends to take one of
three attitudes:

 Escape: reflects into resignation, absenteeism, etc.;

 Fight: through structures like unions or even through an informal organization;
 Adaptation: is the most common reaction and consists in developing an apathy and
indifference attitude, in which the monthly salary represents compensation for the
“punishment” that the work represents.
Maturational-developmental theory: Gesell emphasized that growth always progressein
a pattern through predictable stages or sequences. Sequential development begins
within the embryo and continues after birth. While an individual progresses through
these stages at his or her own pace, the sequence remains the same. According to
Gesell, growth can be thought of as a cyclical spiral. Each cycle of the spiral
encompassing the time it takes to move through six stages, or half-year
increments. Notice that the time to complete a cycle of the six stages is quite rapid in
early life and slows down with age. Gesell’s cycles of development are divided into six
well-defined stages which are repeated throughout life. One cycle includes the
following stages: Smooth, Break-Up, Sorting Out, Expansion, and Neurotic “Fitting
Together”.

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development :Piaget proposed four stages of cognitive

development which reflect the increasing sophistication of children's thought:

1. Sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2)

2. Pre-operational stage (from age 2 to age 7)
3. Concrete operational stage (from age 7 to age 11)
4. Formal operational stage (age 11+ - adolescence and adulthood).

Each child goes through the stages in the same order, and child development is
determined by biological maturation and interaction with the environment. Although no
stage can be missed out, there are individual differences in the rate at which children
progress through stages, and some individuals may never attain the later stages. Piaget
did not claim that a particular stage was reached at a certain age - although descriptions
of the stages often include an indication of the age at which the average child would
reach each stage.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

An ex-post-facto study conducted to know the relation between the social maturity and
depression among the II year PUC students. The total sample consisted of 463 students drawn
from science tutorials in Dharwad city during 2008-09. Social maturity of the students was
measured using the VSMS, the depression of the students was measured using the Depression
scale developed by Karim and Tiwari (1986). The result revealed that, half of the students were
socially matured followed by 42 percent of the students were high on social maturity and 6
percent of them were low on social maturity, 97 there was no significant gender difference on
social maturity followed by low (30%) and highly depressed (16%). There was negative but non-
significant relation between social maturity and depression among the students. Age had positive
and significant relation with depression among the students while parents’ education and annual
income of the family had negative and significant relationship with the depression. Thus, it
revealed that the students with high social maturity were less depressed (Athanimath and Ganga
Yenagi, 2011)

Sokhey and Sudhu (2000) studied the relation between the socio-metric status and social
maturity on 60 students (9-10 years). Vinesland Social Maturity Scale was used to assess the
social maturity and socio-metric test of Moreno (1934) was used to assess the socio-metric status
of the students. The results showed that there was no significant relationship found with social
maturity and socio-metric status both in males and females.

Jordon (1980) investigated the relationship between the Vineland Social Maturity Scale (VSMS)
and the Adaptive Behavior Scale (ABS) in their assessment of adaptive behaviour. Both scales,
the VSMS and the ABS, were administered to a randomized sample of male and female residents
of varying degrees of mental retardation.. The results of this study indicate that there exists a
significant relationship between the Adaptive Behaviour Scale and the Vineland Social Maturity
Scale. In the assessment of adaptive behaviour one scale may be substituted for the other in those
situations where an overall index of adaptive behaviour is required. One of the major differences
between the two scales is that the Adaptive Behaviour Scale provides an extensive survey of
personality and behaviour disorders which identify areas that prevent progress in adaptive
growth. As the assessment of maladaptive behavior is a major concern in the management of the
mentally retarded, the Adaptive Behavior Scale has been found to be the preferred scale in this
investigation.

DESCRIPTION OF TEST
The Vineland Social Maturity Scale (VSMS) measures the differential social capacities of an
individual. It provides an estimate of Social Age (SA) and Social Quotient (SQ), and shows high
correlation with intelligence. It is designed to measure social maturation in eight social areas:
Self-help General (SHG), Self-help Eating (SHE), Self-help Dressing (SHD), Self direction (SD),
Occupation (OCC), Communication (COM), Locomotion (LOM), and Socialization (SOC). The
scale consists of 89 test items grouped into year levels. For details of the complete VSMS one
should refer to VSMS manual. VSMS can be used for the age group of 0-15 years.

Reliability and validity

Recent experiments and research studies (Goulet and Barclay; American Journal of Mental
Deficiency, MAY 1963) have shown a consistent and high CO variation between VSMS Social
Age (S.A.) and the Stanford Binet M.A., Doll reported n correlation of + = 0.85 and Patterson
(1943) reporting a correlation of + = 0.96 with the Binet Scale on a sample of normal children.
This is a 77 clear reflection of how social development and mental development are highly
correlated. The use of this scale at the Nagpur Child Guidance Centre has confirmed its
usefulness with the mentally retarded children. The results to date appear so promising that
the use of this scale at many other clinics, guidance center may bring forth further valuable
information. With the arrival of more research findings in our own country may eventually
produce a scale that can be widely used in our country.

METHODOLOGY
Materials required
- Screen
- Manual of the tool used
- Recording sheet
- Pencil\ pen

Preliminaries
NAME : ABC
AGE: 15 YEARS
GENDER: male

Rapport formation
Rapport establishment is very important form of any test or experiment.
Informed the procedure to the subject after the informal taken subject's profile. Explain time limits, intervals
etc.
Make comfortable sittings arrangements. Adequate light and well ventilated room. Make sure that there is
less noise or no noise at all. Ask general questions like “ what are your hobbies” etc to make the subject
comfortable.
Procedure :
The child was observed and information was collected by interviewing child’s mother regarding
the activities or test items.
Instructions :
The subject was asked to answer the questions according to the age honestly.
Administration:
- The administration should be carried out In a semi- structured Informal atmosphere by
having the mother along with the child or having the child alone depending upon the
demands made by the Items.
- If the particular characteristic described by the item has clearly emerged, a '+' mark may
be made on the left side of the item. But if the evidence proves that it has not emerged
still a '-' mark may be put on the left side of the item. But if the clinician feels confident
that the characteristic might possibly have emerged but in the clinical situation it cannot
be assessed, based on supplementary information provided by the mother half credits
may be given. These half credits receive full credits within the range of otherwise
continuous plus credits.
- A brief Interview with the child informally would {suggest to the clinician the
approximate minimal social development that might have been attained. Just as with
the Binet scale an attempt might be made to obtain a Basal Social Age for the child and
a further developmental appraisal may be started from that age level. At the end of
assessment Full and Half credits may be counted. If the total score falls exactly on the
last item of an age level, the child is given the full Social Age at that age level.
- The procedure for obtaining the Social Age from the Raw Score is given. Social Age can
be directly read of from the table and then converted to Social Quotient by the formula.

Scoring
- Use Record Sheet for noting the child’s responses. Mark the item pass (TICK ) if the child
is able to perform correct and fail ( cross X ) if otherwise. Half credits may be given if it
can be presumed that the child could have passed the item if the opportunity was
present. These half credits receive full credit if they lie between two passed items.
- Add up passed scores (full and half). Find out the Social Age (SA) from Appendix-11 of
VSMS manual. Compute Social Quotient (SQ) by dividing SA by CA and multiplying by
100. Assess maturity levels both in terms of SA and SQ for each of the eight social areas
by referring VSMS norms and enter in the columns of social maturity constellation
record.
Precautions :
Try to elicit as near answer as possible for each item.
Introspective report
“ I had to think a lot before answering”
Behavioural report
The subject’s mother was taking time to answer the items and lose patience by the end of the
test.

RESULTS
Table for converting raw scores to social age.

Raw score SA
80 10.8
81 11
82 11.3
83 11.7
84 12
85 12.6
86 13.2
87 13.8
88 14.4

Chronological age Social age Social quotient

15 12.6 92.4

For calculation of SA
SQ = SA\ CA x 100 where SA- social age
ca- actual age

calculating..
12.6 \ 15 x 100 = 92.4
INTERPRETAION

SQ RANGE CLASSIFICATION OF SOCIAL Q

Above average Above 115
Average 90-110
Borderline 71-89
Mild 50-70
Moderate 35-49
Severe 21-34
Profound Below 20

The social quotient of the subject as obtained is 92.4 and taking ICD-10 as reference for
interpretation the subject scores fall under “average” category of social maturity.

DISCUSSION
On the Vineland Social Maturity Scale (VSMS), the child obtained a social age score of 12.6
years while his chronological age was 15 years . Social age was found to be age appropriate on
domains such as eating, dressing, locomotion, and occupation. His social quotient was found to
be 92.4 which falls under average category. We see that there is a delay of around 2 years in
social skills. Though his social age was age appropriate on domains such as eating, dressing,
locomotion, and occupation on the VSMS, problems were present in communication, and in the
self-direction domains.
Looking at the subject’s social quotient we can conclude that the subject would be able to make
judgements, decisions and take actions and be able to participate in cooperative activities
without conflict with others. He is capable of taking responsibility of his own actions, and of
making and keeping a large number of friends.

CONCLUSION
The subject is a socially mature child with respect to his age. He tries to do most of his work by
himself. According to the norms of profile analysis we conclude that he has average maturity
level.

REFERENCES
Rathus SA. Childhood: Voyages in development. 3rd ed. . Stamford, CT: 2007