Social goals can be explanatory for the type of behavior, prosocial or antisocial behavior, that a child expresses within their social interactions. Social goals consider the individual's concern for maintaining positive social interactions. A child with low concern for positive interactions is more likely to express antisocial behavior and use their advanced social understanding to manipulate or harm others. Overall, social goals set the perspective for a child's relationships or social interactions.

Children's Social Goals and Motivations

There is a positive link between a child's ability to understand others' mental states and that child's popularity among peers, social competence in the classroom, and engagement in connected communication with friends.

Factors Impacted by Children's Social Understanding

A child's social behavior, including interactions with their siblings, is reflective of their level of social understanding. Advanced social understanding has been linked to both antisocial and prosocial behavior, along with social competence. Children with advanced social understanding are grouped into one of two categories by researchers, "nice" or "nasty". A child's motives for their nice or nasty behavior can be explained by their personal social goals.

Syracuse University

Qualities of sibling relationships, specifically during middle childhood, can impact or infer a child's level of social understanding and conflict behavior. Sibling interactions during conflict can help determine the positive or negative qualities of the relationship.

Conflicts in Sibling Relationships

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25592090.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A0e6615c93e6b0d3c68da9a5852131e88 

Holly E. Recchia and Nina Howe: Associations Between Social Understanding, Sibling Relationship Quality, and Siblings'  Conflict Strategies and Outcomes
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Children's Social understanding

The strategies children use to solve interpersonal conflicts are highly dependent on the child's level of social understanding, social goals, and underlying social-cognitive skill. As observed in sibling relationships, constructive conflict tactics such as negotiation are positively associated with relationship quality. In conflict discussions, compromise outcomes are reflective of positive sibling relationship quality. 

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