The development of social competence in early childhood has been found to provide a foundation for later functioning in children with respect to their relationships with peers and other groups (Keane & Calkins, 2004)

Using nationally representative data the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K), I seek to investigate the effect of parental warmth and family religious environment and the interaction of the two factors on the development of social competence in early childhood. This particular study uses the 1998 2000 year wave with the sample size of approximately 17,500 children. Parents and teachers were presented with four different measures which examine the child’s social competence – self-control, interpersonal skills, internalizing problem behaviors, and externalizing problem behaviorsfrom each social setting (home, school). Support was found for the hypothesis that family religious environment as well as parental warmth had a significant influence on children’s social competence; further, religious environment was related to children’s social skills across all levels of parental warmth. The findings have implications for future studies of social development in children and also for developing promising educational programs for parents and beyond.