This article presents a study, performed in Portugal, about the relationship between child mental representations of parents as affection and disciplinary figures, and child social competence. Fifty-nine children aged 8 and 9 years participated in this research. Their mental representations were analysed by means of the content and structures of narratives elaborated in response to the Children Representations about Parental Figures Interview. Social competence was evaluated with the Portuguese adaptation of the Social Skills Rating System - form for teachers, which allows measuring values of social skills, behaviour problems, and academic competence. The results revealed a relation among children's representations of parents as rejecting and punitive figures and children's social skills, internalizing behaviour problems and school achievement, as well as a relation between the coherence of representations and children's social competence.
mental representations of parental figures; school-age children; social competence
