The shadows of difference: ethnicity and young children’s friendships

Abstract

This paper explores the interaction of ethnicity and friendship in a kindergarten in England. Existing literature from different traditions (see Aboud et al 2003; van Ausdale and Feagin 2001; MacNaughton 2005) suggests that preschool children tend to choose friends from the same ethnic group. The research was carried out using an ethnographic approach over the period of a year. The findings indicate that the children did play largely with others of the same sex and same ethnic origin. Children's friendships, sense of self and sense of other, it is suggested, emerged not from within but from experiences of the activities in which they did or did not engage. Hence the children's ethnic identities and friendships were shaped by the internalisation of what they saw and heard as they engaged in the kindergarten's activities. These led to the children's identities being performed and internalised in particular sorts of ways that marked out the children as familiar ('like us') or unfamiliar ('not like us') to others according to their previous experiences. Thus these identity performances in relation to the activities offered seemed to be internalised and to come to affect the friendships that children formed with each other.

Beliefs about social norms and racial inequalities predict variation in the early development of racial bias

“…That is, our results suggest that at least some degree of children's racial biases are flexible and adaptive to their beliefs about their current peer group's attitudes towards interracial friendships (also see Feddes et al, 2009;Paluck, 2011). These findings are particularly important given the relative fluidity of children's friendships in early childhood (Aboud et al, 2003;Barron, 2011;Corsaro, 2017;Rude & Herda, 2010).…”

"We're all friends here": how do early childhood educators promote friendship in the classroom?

“…Relative to the number of studies conducted on friendship in older children (Fink, Begeer, Peterson, Slaughter, & Rosnay, 2015), or on young children's non-peer relationships such as mother-child relationships (Engdahl, 2012), there have been few studies on friendship in very young children (van Hoogdalem et al, 2013). Barron (2011) suggests that this may be due to the influence of Jean Piaget's work, which regarded young children as "egocentric and their friendships as unstable, and, therefore, seemingly unworthy of study" (Barron, 2011, p. 658). Based on Piaget's theory, friendship has been viewed as a development stage that depends on children's ability to have 'theory of mind' or understanding of perspective-taking, which do not develop until children are around age three (Hay et al, 2004).…”

“…Defining the construct of friendship in young children has gained attention over the last 20 years (Barron, 2011;Dunn & Cutting, 1999). Friendship in young children has been defined as a bond between two children characterized by mutual preference, mutual affection, and engagement during interaction (Fink et al, 2015;Howes, 1983).…”

Factors that influence friendship choices in children under 3 in two schools: An approach towards child culture in formal settings in Barcelona

“…According to Kowalski et al (2005), contextual factors, such as the type and quantity of toys in spaces and the homogeneity or heterogeneity of boys and girls of different ages, must be considered since they directly affect the type of game children may develop as well as the children with whom they can play and choose to interact. As regards ethnicity, Barron (2011) states, in an ethnographic study conducted in England, that ethnic origin (and gender) is a factor when choosing friends at 3 years of age, although apparently the social class and family circumstances that can affect these choices (such as mother tongue, for example) should also be considered.…”