Estudio comparativo de habilidades sociales entre estudiantes de ciencias del deporte y educación física

Introduction: Social skills contribute to guide the teaching-learning process with students. Objective: To compare the social skills of students from two universities in a region of Chile. Methods: A descriptive (comparative) study was designed for young people in the professional careers of sports science and physical education, in two universities of the Maule region, Talca (Chile). The sample consisted of 49 students between 18 and 23 years old. The average ages were 20.19 ± 1.65 years for sport sciences and 20.26 ± 1.75 years for physical education. Social skills were assessed through a 50-question scale with six dimensions. Results: In all six dimensions physical education students scored better than sport sciences students (p < 0.05); however, in females no differences were found in basic social skills, advanced social skills, skills related to feelings, aggression and stress. Female physical education students outperformed their sport science counterparts (p < 0.05) in planning skills. Conclusions: The findings indicated that sport science students need to improve their social skills and, in the case of females, their planning ability.