Partner Preferences of British Asian and White Girls and Boys on the Middle School Playground: Do They Vary As a Function of Activity?

Abstract

Abstra ct. A sian and Whit e girls and boys (N=54) were observed on the playground during recess in order to examine their spontaneous peer preferences. All four groups exhi bited a highly signi ficant tend ency to spend more time with own-race, own-gender peers than with any other type ofpeer. Th is result held for the three specific categories ofbehavior that were examined-"R ule Games, ""S ociable," and "Other Play "-with two exceptions (A sian boys did not spend significantly more time with other A sian boys than with Whit e boys in the categories "S ociable" and "Other Play"). Th e data were also examined to determ ine if each group ofparticipants differed in the am ount oftim e they spent with particular types ofcompanions a s a function ofthe three types ofactivity. With one exception-Whitegirls were with White boys significantly more often in "R ule Games" and "Other Play" than in "S ociable"-thi s was not found to be the case. It was argued that schools should be concerned with th e strong cleavage by race and gender during recess, and that encou ragi ng chi ld ren to spend more ti me in thos e activities in which elevated levels ofcontact with diverse peers tak es place may pro vide a useful way to reduce its occurrence.

Friendship Relationships between Turkish-French Children and Their French Peers

“…Each age group communicated with both their ethnic groups and other ethnic groups and native children. This study, therefore, did not correspond with the studies which showed immigrant children preferred their own co-ethnic friendships from pre-school (Finkelstein & Haskins, 1983;Fishbein & Imai, 1993;Leman et al, 2013) to childhood (Boulton, 1996;Leman & Lam, 2008;Verkuyten & Kinket, 2000) and from adolescence to youth (Brüß, 2005;Phinney et al, 1997) rather than inter-group friendships.…”

“…However, it remains unclear how far ethnic group normativity influences children's friendship choices (Leman et al, 2013). Children have higher tendency to play and interact with the same ethnic group from preschool (Finkelstein & Haskins, 1983;Fishbein & Imai, 1993) to childhood (Boulton, 1996;Davey & Mullin, 1982;Leman & Lam, 2008;Leman et al, 2011). Peer relationships provide an important social context for adolescent development (Brechwald & Prinstein, 2011;Meeus, 2011).…”

Normativity and friendship choices among ethnic majority- and minority-group children

“…Studies on this topic have documented the presence of ethnic cleavage in children’s friendship and playmate choices. Children’s friendships have been found to delineate along ethnic lines from early childhood (Finkelstein & Haskins, 1983) and clear ethnic differentiation characterizes friendships from middle childhood (Boulton, 1996) through to adolescence (Kao & Joyner, 2004). Thus, children tend to play with ethnic ingroup peers more frequently than with outgroup peers (Davey & Mullin, 1982; Leman et al, 2011) and form more friendships from within their ethnic group than outside it (Aboud, Mendelson, & Purdy, 2003).…”

Predicting changes in children's self‐perceptions from playground social activities and interactions

“…These studies, while few in number, converge to suggest that what children do on the playground links in systematic ways to some key parameters of their development (Blatchford, 1998; Boulton, 1999; Hart, 1993; Pellegrini, 1995; Pellegrini & Smith, 1993). For instance, studies have shown that recess provides children with (1) a break that helps optimize subsequent attention to school work (Smith & Hagen, 1980; see Pellegrini & Bjorklund, 1996), (2) opportunities to develop social relationships (Blatchford, 1998; Boulton, 1996), and (3) opportunities to develop social skills (Sluckin, 1981; Sutton‐Smith, 1971).…”