Rough and Tumble, Friendship, and Dominance in Schoolchildren: Evidence for Continuity and Change with Age

Humphreys, Anne P.; Smith, Peter K.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1987.tb03500.x

Cited by 30 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The initial training period also was designed to enable the children to habituate to the presence of an observer. The procedure adopted was similar to that employed in several studies (Boulton, 1993;Boulton & Smith, 1993;Humphreys & Smith, 1987). It involved the observer being introduced to the children in their classroom, when it was explained to them that the observer could not talk to anybody on the playground because they "would be busy."…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concurrent and Longitudinal Relations between Children's Playground Behavior and Social Preference, Victimization, and Bullying

Boulton

1999

Child Development

109

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Prior research with contrived play groups suggests that how children interact with one another can influence their social relationships, but few studies have been carried out to determine if this is the case in naturalistic settings. This study examined the concurrent and longitudinal links between four observational measures of 8- to 9-year-old children's (N = 89) playground behaviors/peer contacts (Alone, Conversation, Group Size, and Network) and three sociometric measures of their peer relationships (Social Preference, Bully, and Victim). The latter were assessed at 2 points within a school year, the first corresponding with the playground observations and the second 5 months later. Several of the concurrent correlations were found to be significant. For boys, Group Size was positively correlated with Bully Score and Social Preference Score, but negatively correlated with Victim Score; and time Alone was positively correlated with Victim Score. For girls, time Alone was positively correlated with Victim Score; Network was negatively correlated with Bully Score but positively correlated with Social Preference Score; and Group Size was positively correlated with Social Preference Score. The longitudinal analyses indicated that for boys, elevated levels of time Alone and, separately, Conversation, predicted the highest increases in Victim Score. For girls, low levels of time Alone predicted the sharpest increases in Social Preference Score. There was also some marginally significant evidence, p < .06, that among girls, high levels of time Alone predicted the greatest increases in Bully Score, and high levels of Conversation predicted the greatest increases in Social Preference Score. The theoretical and practical importance of these links between children's nonaggressive playground behaviors and their emerging peer relationships are discussed.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concurrent and Longitudinal Relations between Children's Playground Behavior and Social Preference, Victimization, and Bullying

Boulton

1999

Child Development

109

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“…Rough-and-tumble play, or play-fighting, which occurs frequently in the playground and other free play conditions (Blurton Jones, 1972;Humphreys & Smith, 1987), was recorded separately from the categories of aggression. Behaviour was identified as 'rough-and-tumble' when motor acts usually associated with physical aggression (principally wrestle and chase, but also the others listed in the Appendix) occurred accompanied by smiling or laughing (Smith, 1988).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aggressive behaviour of children aged 6–11: Gender differences and their magnitude

Archer

Pearson

Westeman

1988

British J Social Psychol

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A total of 72 boys and 72 girls, of six age groups from 6 to 11 years, was observed in the school classroom over eight 5-minute periods, under conditions of low structure, non-directive teaching; aggressive and other categories of behaviour were recorded. There were no overall gender differences in aggression, but boys showed significantly more physical aggression than girls (overall effect size d = 0.36), whereas girls showed significantly more verbal aggression than boys (overall effect size d = 0.66). The physical aggression difference was variable both in direction and magnitude across the age categories and included a large reversal at 9 years. Boy's higher levels of physical aggression were not associated with higher levels of activity or more time spent in social interactions. The gender difference in verbal aggression was consistent in direction and magnitude across age categories, but in the opposite direction to the majority of previous findings. There were no gender differences in other categories of verbal behaviour.

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“…The aim of the intervention was to encourage participants to consider differences between playful and aggressive fighting. It was based on the data provided by a number of researchers (Aldis, 1975;Blurton-Jones, 1972;Boulton, 1991a;Fry, 1987;Humphreys & Smith, 1987;McGrew, 1972;Pellegrini, 1989;Smith & Boulton, 1990) and summarised by Smith (1989). Studies that had found differences between playful and aggressive fighting were described in order to draw participants' attention to the criteria that they could use themselves.…”

Section: Intervention Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This category of playground behaviour takes up on average between 5 and 10% of junior school pupils' free play time (Boulton, 1992;Humphreys & Smith, 1987), although there are marked individual differences (Boulton, 1988), and boys tend to engage in more of it than girls (see review by Humphreys & Smith, 1984). In one study, Boulton (1991~) found that boys engaged in more bouts of playful fighting (and chasing) than girls at both 8 years of age (41 versus 30 episodes per hour) and 1 1 years of age (35 versus 15 episodes per hour).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some of the available evidence suggests that participation in playful fighting may be at odds with the ethos of cooperation and tolerance that schools are trying to foster within children. Playful fighting has been implicated in the development of real fighting skills (Aldis, 1975;Boulton, 1991b;Konner, 1972) and it is also thought to be used by children to achieve or maintain dominance (Humphreys & Smith, 1987;Boulton, 1991b;Neill, 1976). These sorts of concerns probably contribute to the negative view of playful fighting and war play typically found among parents and teachers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lunchtime supervisors' attitudes towards playful fighting, and ability to differentiate between playful and aggressive fighting: an intervention study

Boulton¹

1996

Brit J of Edu Psychol

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Study 1 provided data about lunchtime supervisors' (N=72) attitudes towards playful fighting, since this group had not figured in previous research. Participants expressed generally positive attitudes, although those individuals with the longest service tended to hold the least favourable views. It was argued that the opinions of this section of school staff should be considered when policy about playful fighting on the playground is developed. Study 2 investigated the ability of participants to discriminate between playful and aggressive fighting. They were shown a videotape of children involved in ten separate episodes of the two types of encounter, and asked to say whether the children were playing or really fighting. The nature of these episodes was assessed by asking the children involved and by ratings by an experienced researcher. Participants' responses that indicated errors in perceiving play to be aggression, and, separately, aggression to be play, were tallied. On average, errors were made on more than one in four of the episodes, and there were more errors of the latter type than of the former type. A short intervention was implemented that highlighted how it is possible to discriminate between playful and aggressive fighting. Participants were then shown another series of ten episodes and the number of errors made were again tallied. Statistical analysis showed that the intervention was followed by a significant reduction in errors of mistakenly viewing episodes of aggressive fighting as play. It is argued that these results point to the need for training of lunchtime supervisors in this aspect on non‐verbal decoding skill, and that such training might take a form similar to that implemented in this study.

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Rough and Tumble, Friendship, and Dominance in Schoolchildren: Evidence for Continuity and Change with Age

Cited by 30 publications

References 16 publications

Concurrent and Longitudinal Relations between Children's Playground Behavior and Social Preference, Victimization, and Bullying

Concurrent and Longitudinal Relations between Children's Playground Behavior and Social Preference, Victimization, and Bullying

Aggressive behaviour of children aged 6–11: Gender differences and their magnitude

Lunchtime supervisors' attitudes towards playful fighting, and ability to differentiate between playful and aggressive fighting: an intervention study

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