Prosocial and antisocial children's perceptions of peers' motives for prosocial behaviours

This study investigated whether peer-nominated prosocial and antisocial children have different perceptions of the motives underlying peers' prosocial actions. Eighty-seven children, aged 10-12 years old, completed peer-nomination measures of social behaviour. On the basis of numbers of social nominations received, a subsample of 51 children (32 who were peer-nominated as 'prosocial', and 18 who were peer-nominated as 'antisocial') then recorded their perceptions of peers' motives for prosocial behaviours. Expressed motives were categorized predominantly into three categories, coinciding with Turiel's (1978) 'moral', 'conventional', and 'personal domains'. Results indicate that children's social reputation is associated with the extent to which they perceive peers' prosocial motives as 'personal' or 'moral', with more prosocial children attributing moral motives, and more antisocial children attributing personal motives. Although traditionally Turiel's domain theory has been used to understand 'antisocial' children's behaviour, the current findings suggest that 'prosocial' children's behaviour may also be related to domains of judgment

Young children’s peer relationships and interactions in small group settings

The purpose of the study is to examine children’s peer ties, and socio-emotional interaction in small group settings and how these are related together. One of the aims of this longitudinal study is to examine the transitivity, mutuality, and stability of preschool age children’s peer relationships over one academic year. Another aim is to observe children’s prosocial and problem behaviors in small group settings around tablet computers. It is studied how gender and closeness of friendships influence on young children’s relationships and interactions. Participants of the study included 16 children from a southwestern Finnish preschool. Interview data were collected from the children at five separate time points (total 80 interviews), by using sociometric nomination techniques. Video recordings were gathered around computer sessions and later coded to analyse children’s socio-emotional behavior and interactions with their peers. Social network analysis methods were used to investigate the stability and cohesion of the peer relationships, gathered through interviews. Social network analysis was also employed to analyze the density and centrality of the interactions among peers. Further, video-recorded interactions were analyzed to examine what kind of prosocial and problem behaviors there were in small group situations. The study contributes to the extant literature by describing how children’s friendship ties get stabilized during the early childhood. Based on the results, gender has stronger influence than the age of the children. The daily pedagogical arrangements had some influence on peer relationships. The results showed a wide variety in how prosocial and problem behavior took place in small group settings. In all, prosocial behavior was four times more typical than problem behavior, and there were more initiating than responding behaviors. Unexpectedly, a positive correlation between children’s peer preference and problem behavior was found. Some possible explanations for this were given. A practical and concise peer interaction observation tool (PIOT) was developed to follow children’s social and emotional skills in peer interactions.Pienten lasten vertaissuhteet ja vuorovaikutus pienryhmissä Tämän väitöskirjan tarkoituksena on tutkia pienten lasten vertaissuhteita ja sosiaalis-emotionaalista vuorovaikutusta sekä miten nämä ovat sidoksissa toisiinsa. Pitkittäistutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää lasten vertaissuhteiden transitiivisuutta, vastavuoroisuutta ja pysyvyyttä yhden lukuvuoden aikana. Tutkimuksessa havainnoitiin lasten prososiaalisuutta ja ongelmakäyttäytymistä tietokoneiden äärellä tapahtuvissa pienryhmätilanteissa. Erityistä huomiota kiinnitetään lasten sukupuolen ja ystävyyssuhteiden merkitykseen sekä toimintaan, joka tapahtuu päiväkodin pienryhmätilanteissa. Tutkimukseen osallistui yhteensä 16 päiväkotilasta, joiden viisi kertaa toistetuissa haastatteluissa kerättiin sosiometristä nimeämistietoa (yhteensä 80 haastattelua) ja videoaineistosta. Sosiaalisen verkostoanalyysin avulla tutkittiin lasten vertaissuhteiden pysyvyyttä ja niissä havaittua koheesiota. Videoanalyysien avulla tarkasteltiin lasten keskinäisessä vuorovaikutuksessa ilmenevää prososiaalisuutta ja ongelmakäyttäytymistä. Tutkimuksen merkitys on varhaislapsuuden ystävyyssuhteiden ja vertaisryhmissä tapahtuvan sosiaalis-emotionaalisen käyttäytymisen tarkastelussa päiväkotikontekstissa. Tulosten perusteella lasten sukupuoli vaikuttaa vertaissuhteiden syntymiseen enemmän kuin ikä. Päivittäiset pedagogiset järjestelyt ryhmien kokoonpanoissa vaikuttivat vain vähän vertaissuhteiden muodostumiseen. Tulokset osoittivat suurta vaihtelua prososiaalisen ja ongelmakäyttäytymisen esiintymisessä, lapsia toisiinsa verrattaessa. Kaikkiaan prososiaalisuus oli neljä kertaa yleisempää kuin ongelmakäyttäytyminen ja vuorovaikutuksen aloittamista oli enemmän kuin siihen vastaamista. Hieman yllättävästi havaittiin myös positiivinen korrelaatio lasten toverimieltymysten ja ongelmakäyttäytymisen välillä. Siihen annetaan tutkimuksessa joitain selityksiä. Tutkimuksen aikana kehitettiin käytännöllinen ja kompakti vuorovaikutuksen havainnointityökalu (PIOT), jota voidaan hyödyntää lasten sosiaalisten ja emotionaalisten taitojen oppimisen apuna

A cross-contextual analysis of boys' aggressiveness

The research undertaken for this investigation was an analysis of boys' aggressiveness across two contexts: family and peer. The sample included 96 mother-son pairs. The mothers and sons visited the research center where they completed semi-structured interviews designed to assess their negative attributions about each other. Additionally, mothers and sons were observed while engaging in a laboratory interaction task. Research assistants visited the classrooms of participating sons in order to obtain peer nominations and teacher reports of boys' problem behaviors. Results of a one-way MANOVA revealed that maternal and child negative attributions and negative interactions did not vary by boys' aggressiveness as rated by their peers. Peer descriptions of appearing angry were strongly related to boys' aggressiveness as rated by their peers. Additionally, peer descriptions of shy and sad were unrelated to boys' aggressiveness. Teachers' reports of problem behaviors were strongly related to boys' aggressiveness as rated by their peers. Thus, there was discontinuity between boys' aggressiveness between family and peer, but a high degree of consensus among peers' and teachers' perceptions of boys' aggressiveness. The failure to find continuity between the two contexts of family and peer are discussed in terms of contextual differences in the situations that influence boys' aggressiveness

Kindergartners who become friends : classroom influences on interactions and patterns of stability and change

This research was a year-long longitudinal study examining the friend making activity of kindergarten children. The subjects were a diverse sample of 38 children, attending two kindergarten classes in a suburban public school in North Carolina. The sample included 15 girls (mean age 65 months), and 23 boys (mean age 67.6 months). Median income of subjects' families was $40,000. Spot observational methods were used to record children's social interactions. Observational data were aggregated by seven coding periods to identify frequent playmates. Teacher and child nominations of individual's common playmates were recorded at the end of each coding period. The three methods of playmate identification were compared to determine the concordance between them. It was hypothesized that concordance between all methods would exist. Individual children were identified as friends by the frequency, stability, and quality of their interactions, and the concordance between at least two identification methods. It was hypothesized that the individuals who became stable friends with classmates would engage in more interactions outside of the proximity of teachers, and during free activity times. It was also hypothesized that boys would be more likely than girls to be identified as stable friends. By using observational data, three stability-change types of individuals were identified. Marginals were relative social isolates. Changers were children who changed play partners. Consistents had one or more frequent and lasting play partners. Data signifying the level of joint activity and positive reciprocal interactions by types were compared. Graphs were constructed showing the variability of these interactions by types across the year under varying conditions of the proximal setting variables, teacher presence and classroom structure

Forged Through Association: The Moderating Influence of Peer Context on the Development and Behavior of Temperamentally-Dysregulated Children

abstract: The moderating effects of five characteristics of peers--their effortful control, anger, sadness, aggression, and positive peer behavior--were investigated in two separate series of analyses of preschooler's social behavior: (a) the relation between children's own effortful control and social behavior, and (b) the relation between children's shyness and reticent behavior. Latent variable interactions were conducted in a structural equation framework. Peer context anger and effortful control, albeit with unexpected results, interacted with children's own characteristics to predict their behavior in both the EC and shy model series; these were the only significant interactions obtained for the EC model series. The relation between shyness and reticent behavior, however, showed the greatest impact of peer context and, conversely, the greatest susceptibility to environmental variations; significant interactions were obtained in all five models, despite the limited range of peer context sadness and aggression observed in this study.Dissertation/ThesisM.A. Psychology 201

Pragmatics, Prosody, and Social Skills of School-Age Children with Language-Learning Differences

Social skills are an important aspect of child development that continues to have influences in adolescence and adulthood (Hart, Olsen, Robinson, & Mandleco, 1997). Interacting in a social world requires an integration of many abilities that include social skills and emotional understanding of oneself and other persons. Children who have difficulties with interpreting social cues (e.g., identifying basic emotions and responding to cues in speech) have immediate and progressive consequences in both academics and social living. Children with typical language skills are successfully interacting with peers and acknowledging social rules for different environments (e.g., playing at school vs. playing at home). In contrast, children with language impairments struggle with using social skills that result in negative experiences in peer interactions (Horowitz, Jansson, Ljungberg, & Hedenbro, 2006). This study explored the social profiles of second grade children with a range of language abilities (e.g., children with low and high levels of language) as they interpret emotions in speech and narrative tasks. Multiple informants (i.e., parents, teachers, speech-language pathologist, and peers) evaluated social skills from different perspectives. A multi-interactional approach explained children’s social-emotional development from three theoretical perspectives: pragmatics, cognition, and emotional understanding. Forty-one second grade children completed a battery of tests that evaluated cognitive measures, language ability, and social skills. Each participant completed three experimental tasks (perception, imitation, and narrative) that examined how children process emotional cues in speech and narratives. A sociometric classification profiled children’s social skills and peer relationships. Results indicated that children with a range of language abilities (i.e., children with low and high levels of language skills) processed emotional cues in speech. Four acoustic patterns significantly related to how children differentiate emotions in speech. Additionally, language ability was a significant factor in the ability to infer emotions in narratives and judge social skills. Children with high language scores were more liked by peers and received better ratings on the teacher questionnaires. This study provides preliminary evidence that children with low and high levels of language abilities are able to interpret emotional cues in speech but differed in the ability to infer emotions in narratives