Les relations affinitaires à la crèche

Abstract

Two groups of toddlers (mean ages 13 and 19 months) were observed during free play at their day care centre over a period of 7 months. Repeated measures of time spent together, frequency of prosocial behaviors and reciprocity between partners show that 60 % of one-year-olds enter stable friendship relations. Comparing exchanges with friends and non-friends reveals significant differences in structure and content. These are more numerous and marked among elder children whose friendships are more comprehensive, but in both groups, play is the most typical behavior of friends. Correlations between children's social behavior and number of friends indicate that prosocial behaviors have an important attractive power to one-year-old children, irrespective of the frequency of agressive behaviors, whereas two-year-olds reject those who repeatedly perform agressive acts. As well as a space for personal opening, friendship creates a preferential frame for social development, where children test their newest and most sophisticated social behaviors before extending them to non-friend partners.