The chapter begins with a distinction made between the interactions children have with peers, the relationships they form with peers, and the groups and networks within which peer interactions and relationships occur. From this conceptual overview, a review of relevant theories is presented. Thereafter, a developmental perspective of peer interactions, relationships, and groups is presented covering the periods of infancy, toddlerhood, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. Subsequently, methods and measures pertaining to the study of children's peer experiences are described. Next, we examine factors that may account for peer acceptance and rejection as well as qualitatively rich and poor friendships. Among the factors discussed are included temperament (biological factors), sex of child, parenting, parent-child relationships, and culture. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the extent to which individual differences in peer acceptance, rejection and friendship (prevalence and quality) predict adaptive and maladaptive developmental outcomes and a suggested agenda for future research.


Keywords:

friendship;
peer interactions;
peer relationships;
peer rejection;
social acceptance;
social competence

Peer Interactions, Relationships, and Groups

Observing Interaction: An Introduction to Sequential Analysis, Roger Bakeman, John M. Gottman. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1986), ixv, +221. Price £25.00 hardback, £7.95 paperback

and distant from their actions. Children will not only match or imitate the pretend acts of other children but also attempt to recruit the partner to join their pretend play. These efforts are not routinely successful, but it is clear that children are beginning to understand that nonliteral meanings can be shared by partners. From 21 to 24 months, children engage in similar pretend actions in the context of broader joint activity. Attempts to recruit others into pretense are more frequent and more successful. Although children organize materials for sociodramatic play, there is little or no joint organization of the pretend play itself. Scripted joint play emerges from 25 to 30 months, and the assignment of social roles in play (e.g., doctor, mother, father, police officer) emerges shortly thereafter, from 31 to 36 months. At this point, children understand that nonliteral meaning can be shared and they can communicate these meanings effectively during pretense with partners.

Peer Relationships, Child Development, and Adjustment: A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective

We present a developmental model that describes normal peer relations and highlights processes that underlie the emergence of problems with peers in childhood. We propose that children's relationships with peers begin in the first years of life, with stable individual differences and preferences for particular peers emerging by three years of age. Social skills that facilitate peer relationships consolidate in the preschool years, during which time peer groups become structured with respect to friendship groups, gender, and dominance relations; some children begin to be rejected by their peers. In later childhood some children develop entrenched problems with peer relationships, in terms of loneliness, bullying and victimisation. Underlying cognitive and emotional processes that facilitate successful peer relationships at all ages are identified, and the extent to which peer relations play a causal role in the genesis of disorder is evaluated. A review of the evidence suggests that, rather than a simple pathway from problematic peer relations to disorder, there is a reciprocal relationship between children's problems with peers and their psychological problems from infancy to adolescence.

Peer relations in childhood

This descriptive study examined classroom activity settings in relation to children's observed behavior during classroom interactions, child gender, and basic teacher behavior within the preschool classroom. 145 children were observed for an average of 80 minutes during 8 occasions across 2 days using the inCLASS, an observational measure that conceptualizes behavior into teacher, peer, task, and conflict interactions. Findings indicated that on average children's interactions with teachers were higher in teacher-structured settings, such as large group. On average, children's interactions with peers and tasks were more positive in child-directed settings, such as free choice. Children experienced more conflict during recess and routines/transitions. Finally, gender differences were observed within small group and meals. The implications of these findings might encourage teachers to be thoughtful and intentional about what types of support and resources are provided so children can successfully navigate the demands of particular settings. These findings are not meant to discourage certain teacher behaviors or imply value of certain classroom settings; instead, by providing an evidenced-based picture of the conditions under which children display the most positive interactions, teachers can be more aware of choices within these settings and have a powerful way to assist in professional development and interventions.

/pdf/observations-of-children-s-interactions-with-teachers-peers-3ywgfcm19n.pdf

Observations of Children's Interactions with Teachers, Peers, and Tasks across Preschool Classroom Activity Settings.

This study examined 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds' peer conflicts in the naturalistic classroom setting during free-play time. 400 preschoolers from 25 classrooms were videotaped. Only the first conflict event generated by each target-child observation was included in the analysis. Of the 400 target-child observations, 322 generated a conflict event. In general, there was a shift in the issues of conflict from tangible material concerns to those that were more mental and social. 2-year-olds had a higher proportion of distribution of resources conflicts than did 3- and 4-year-olds. Conflicts about play and ideas significantly increased with age while those stemming from physical harm were low overall. Further, child-generated resolutions increased while insistence decreased significantly with age. What changes with development appears to be the issues of conflict and the way they are handled; not the incidence of conflict per se. These findings support the proposal that conflicts are natural contexts in which ch...

Hak-Ping. Tam

Papers

Peer conflicts of preschool children: Issues, resolution, incidence, and age-related patterns