The function of friends in preschoolers' lives: at the entrance to the classroom

Abstract

-The function of friendships and peer attachment in preschoolers' everyday lives is examined from the ethological view point. It is postulated that a child invests time and energy in friends or play partners chosen by him/herself: the child collects information about the friends and attempts to influence their special behavioural tendencies to his/her own advantage. As a result of this long-term investment, the friends are more predictable, controllable, and cooperative. It is hypothesized that a child uses and benefits from the friends in attempts to reach his/her personal goals. This study examines whether a child benefits from friends in attempts to join in play. Seventeen German preschool children (10 boys and 7 girls) ranging in age from 36 to 79 months were observed on arrival at school on 18 preschool days. When friends were present in the classroom, children first approached peers more often than when friends were not present; otherwise they approached the teacher. Friends often actively initiated interaction with arriving children, for example by calling the child's name. Success in joining in play was highest when friends were chosen as the target of the approach. During approaches to friends, tactics were more frequently used which require specific information about the target. However, when friends were playing with nonfriends of the children, benefits such as initiation by the target and the larger range of alternatives in strategies were not observed. The results support the hypothesis that a child uses and benefits from friends. The results further suggest that the relationships of friends with other peers disturb the beneficial effects of friends and that such relationships even increases the costs in interactions with friends.Preschoolers are likely to single out some of their classmates as close companions and friends. Friendship is thought to constitute, together with the parent-child bonding and the tie between spouses, the attachment system, one of the fundamental behavioural systems of mankind (Bowlby 1969(Bowlby , 1973(Bowlby , 1980Eibl-Eibesfeldt 1984). The phenomenon of friendship among children is therefore called 'peer attachment ' (Hartup 1975).Preschoolers nominate only a certain number of peers (mean ca. 5) as their 'friends' (Eder & Hallinan 1978), although the concept of friendship seems to be already quite complex at the preschool level (Hayes 1978). Observation on children's interactions in free play time shows that they play more frequently with some peers than with others (Challman 1932;Smith & Connolly 1980;Corsaro 1981;Grammer 1985). Furthermore, certain peers are chosen by a child as 'nearest neighbours' (McGrew 1974;Hinde et al. 1985) or as 'preferred targets of affiliative behaviour' (Strayer 1980).There has been little theoretical consideration yet of why children develop such friendships or the function of friendship in preschoolers' everyday lives (cp. Corsaro 1981), and little is known about children's interactions with their close friends.The phenomenon of fr...

Aggression and Withdrawal Related Behavior within Conflict Management Progression in Preschool Boys with Language Impairment

“…The term, displacement activity, corresponds to an ethological description of behavior displayed in anxiety inducing situations that seem irrelevant to provoking stimuli [65]. Here, displacement activities are labeled passive withdrawal.…”

FOCUS ON PRACTICE: Difficulties in initiating and sustaining peer friendships: perspectives on students diagnosed with AD/HD

“…On having made a favourable assessment of the prospective friend's attributes, the instigator friend attempts to initiate contact and cement the relationship by spending extra time with the prospective friend. As the tentative friendship becomes firmer, the instigator friend adopts a protective attitude towards the prospective friend and wards off potential rivals to the friendship until the bond is secured (Shibasaka, 1988). An ability to initiate and sustain harmonious friendships is considered to be a marker of healthy child development (Rydell, Bohlin & Thorell, 2005).…”

“…Children with a rejected socialisation pattern tend to separate into either a ‘withdrawn‐rejected’ or an ‘aggressive‐rejected’ sub‐pattern. Of these two sub‐patterns, children in the aggressive‐rejected sub‐pattern tend to gain a reputation for being overly aggressive or disruptive, while children in the withdrawn‐rejected sub‐pattern are more likely to manifest low self‐esteem (Shibasaka, 1988). Children in both rejected patterns tend to experience feelings of intense, protracted or extreme loneliness and an inability to develop age‐appropriate social skills (Schmidt, Demulder & Denham, 2002; Shibasaka, 1988).…”