Examining The Mediating Role Of Communication Skills In The Relationship Between Social Identity And Social Adjustment Among High School Students

Introduction: Life has grown enormously in the last half century along with rapid population growth and many social and industrial changes. Students should learn to find their place in society and associate themselves with school, community, peers, family and authorities in these rapid social changes and stressful life events. Various factors are related to social adaptation, among which the most important one is social identity. Adaptation is the useful and effective behavior of a person in accordance with the physical and psychological environment, in such a way that not only does it not match the environmental changes and only unconsciously following it is not enough, but it can also influence the environment and change it accordingly. Social adaptation in teenagers is one of the signs of their social identity, it is one of the topics that has attracted the attention of many sociologists, psychologists and educators in recent decades, because adolescence is a sensitive period and social adaptation During this period, the teenager is undergoing extreme emotional, physical and mental changes and has not yet fully developed. For this reason, the delay in emotional maturity may cause serious problems in interpersonal relationships in teenagers and social challenges for them. Social identity is the identifier of that social group or field that a person belongs to and introduces herself/himself to, and in social life, she/he considers herself/himself committed, and loyal to it, and thus causes compatibility between people.
The process of acquiring identity is also a developmental task for teenagers, where a person must strive to achieve a unified image of herself/himself. Achieving identity, as the ability to experience one's self as something integrated and continuous over time and acting on it, and reaching a specific and unique definition of oneself, is one of the tasks of adolescence. Identity is a personal framework that is used as a resource to interpret experiences. Communication skills mean certain processes that enable a person to behave in a "decent" way.
Communication skills are closely related to the formation of social identity of teenagers. Adolescents who don't have proper communication skills get lost in communicating with others and forming a social identity. Communication skills are necessary to establish social relationships, because humans need to establish relationships with other humans to continue living. Communication skills are acquired and include verbal and non-verbal skills that a person must learn and use in their personal, work, academic, etc. relationships. Undoubtedly, by identifying the factors affecting social identity, an effective step can be taken to design efficient and practical programs to improve it. According to the above material, in this research, we are looking for this question, does the variable of communication skills have a mediating role in the relationship between social identity and social adaptation?
Method: The present research was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between social identity and social adjustment, considering the mediating role of communication skills. The research population was 6570 people, of which 362 people were selected using a simple random sampling method and using the social adjustment questionnaires of California Clark et al. Social Safari Nia et al. (2013) were investigated.
Findings: The strength of the direct effect of social adjustment on social identity was calculated as 0.36, which shows that the correlation is favorable. The t-statistic of the test is also 4.34, which is greater than the critical value of t at the 5% error level, i.e. 1.96, and shows that the observed correlation is significant. The power of the indirect effect of social adjustment on social identity was calculated as 0.45, which shows that the correlation is favorable. The t-statistic of the test is also 5.43, which is greater than the critical value of t at the 5% error level, i.e. 1.96, and shows that the observed correlation is significant. The findings of the research showed that the social adaptation of students has a direct and meaningful relationship with their communication skills and social identity, social adaptation has a direct effect on the social identity of Kerman high school students. Communication skills increase social adaptation in students by improving the understanding of verbal and non-verbal messages and listening skills, communication skills can improve and strengthen social identity in students, social identity increases social adaptation in students. There is a positive and significant relationship between self-positivity and the degree of social acceptance and social adaptation of students in school, the mediating variable of communication skills increases social adaptation , social identity in students and social skills in the relationship between social adaptation and social identity plays a mediating role.
Discussion and conclusion: It can be said that communication skills can help students to know their own and others' emotions and evaluate them carefully, in this way, they can get more social and emotional support from their environment. Communication skills make students understand many psychological characteristics of themselves and the other party and accept them more clearly. Students who have high social compatibility and social identity are more capable of recognizing their feelings and emotions, for this reason they can better deal with challenges and stress, and they can more easily accept responsibility for their actions and take more responsibility for their work.