Interactions of Preschool and Kindergarten Friends and Acquaintances

Abstract

The interactions of 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old friends and acquaintances in a peer teaching and game-playing situation were examined. The sample consisted of 102 children who were divided into pairs of same-age, same-sex friends or acquaintances using sociometrics. One child in each pair was randomly chosen to be the teacher and the other the learner. The teachers taught a novel board game to the learners. The most common teaching method was a combination of explaining and demonstrating the rules before the game began; older children gave more comprehensive instructions than younger children. At all ages, teachers were more likely than learners to take the first turn, issue commands, and change the rules. Friends were rated more involved with their partners, more emotionally expressive, and more competitive than acquaintances. Teachers who taught friends were rated more domineering than teachers who taught acquaintances, and learners who were taught by friends were rated more playful and friendly than learners taught by acquaintances.

Children's friendships and learning in school: Cognitive enhancement through social interaction?

“…Openended cognitive problems have been found to encourage high levels of joint engagement, especially among friends. (b) At a general level, friendship pairings involved in cognitive problem solving are more successful than acquaintance pairings (Brachfeld-Child & Schiavo, 1989;Miell & MacDonald, 2000;Newcomb, Brady, & Hartup, 1979), but only a few studies acknowledge variations in performance among friendship pairs undertaking these tasks. Friendship itself is a highly differentiated and developmental concept, with strong experiential and cultural bases.…”

“… Type of task arguments identify that a task must be of sufficient difficulty to encourage friendship (Azmitia & Montgomery, 1993; Nelson & Aboud, 1985) and group engagement (Blatchford, Kutnick, Baines, & Galton, 2003; Bossert et al , 1985), although overly difficult problems will discourage participation. Open‐ended cognitive problems have been found to encourage high levels of joint engagement, especially among friends. At a general level, friendship pairings involved in cognitive problem solving are more successful than acquaintance pairings (Brachfeld‐Child & Schiavo, 1989; Miell & MacDonald, 2000; Newcomb, Brady, & Hartup, 1979), but only a few studies acknowledge variations in performance among friendship pairs undertaking these tasks. Friendship itself is a highly differentiated and developmental concept, with strong experiential and cultural bases.…”

The Effect of Gender Context on Children's Social Behavior in a Limited Resource Situation: An Observational Study

“…In addition to gender and social competence, contextual factors influence children's social behaviors, ranging from helping (e.g., Gillies, 2000) to aggression (e.g., DeRosier, Cillessen, Coie, & Dodge, 1994; Dodge, Coie, Pettit, & Price, 1990). Specific variables that influence children's social behavior are group size (Benenson, Nicholson, Waite, Roy, & Simpson, 2001), familiarity of group members (Asher, 1983; Brachfeld‐Child & Schiavo, 1990; Cillessen, 1997; Coie & Kupersmidt, 1983), and group gender composition (Hartup, 1996).…”