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Social skills in women with Turner Syndrome
Author(s) -
SUZIGAN LÍGIA ZUPPI,
DE PAIVA E SILVA ROBERTO BENEDITO,
GUERRAJÚNIOR GIL,
MARINI SOFIA HELENA VALENTE LEMOS,
MACIELGUERRA ANDRÉA TREVAS
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.2011.00887.x
Subject(s) - social skills , psychology , turner syndrome , interpersonal relationship , turner's syndrome , interpersonal communication , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , pediatrics , social psychology , medicine
Suzigan, L. Z., Silva, R. B. P., Guerra‐Júnior, G., Marini, S. H. V. L. & Maciel‐Guerra, A. T. (2011). Social skills in women with Turner Syndrome. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 52 , 440–447. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a group of women with Turner Syndrome (TS) in interpersonal situations where several social skills were required, and to compare the results with unaffected sisters. Fifty‐two TS females aged 15–35 years and 33 sisters aged 16–43 were evaluated using Del‐Prette Social Skills Inventory (SSI) and individual interviews. Thirty mothers to subjects and sisters answered questionnaires. It was found that TS girls’ performance in SSI was as good as their sisters’ and even better in meeting new people and facing unknown situations ( p = 0.020). Older TS women scored better than younger ones, differently from their sisters. There were no significant correlations between total score of TS women and their age at diagnosis, time of follow‐up and height z ‐score. Mothers reported having more problems with TS girls than with sisters. Although TS girls demonstrated having social difficulties, just a few of them spontaneously complained about interpersonal problems in the interview. Results suggest that social difficulties may not cause TS girls major problems nor make them unhappy with their social lives, and/or TS girls may not be able to perceive their own difficulties. Good performance in SSI also suggests that TS girls can identify adequate skills in presented situations and answer in a way to obtain good scores, but they may not necessarily use their skills due to other factors like anxiety and shyness. They may also have a tendency to answer SSI in a way they consider socially desirable, masking their real difficulties.