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Cooperation and preference by peers in early childhood: A longitudinal study
Author(s) -
Endedijk Hinke M.,
Cillessen Antonius H. N.,
Bekkering Harold,
Hunnius Sabine
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
social development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.078
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1467-9507
pISSN - 0961-205X
DOI - 10.1111/sode.12437
Subject(s) - psychology , preference , developmental psychology , peer relations , action (physics) , peer group , social relation , quality (philosophy) , social preferences , peer acceptance , early childhood , longitudinal study , social psychology , statistics , mathematics , economics , microeconomics , philosophy , physics , epistemology , quantum mechanics
Children who are more proficient in cooperation with peers tend to be more preferred. To date, the development of peer cooperation has been studied mainly in two research traditions, one focusing on action coordination and the other focusing on interaction quality. Both aspects of cooperation are relevant for children's peer relations, but it is unclear whether both aspects of children's earliest cooperation skills predict their later preference by peers after the transition into organized social groups in school. In this study, we assessed coordination proficiency and interaction quality of 181 Dutch children longitudinally from 2 to 4 years of age. No relation between early action coordination and later preference by peers at school was found. However, especially in girls more affiliative and fewer antagonistic behaviors at the age of two predicted likeability among classmates at school at the age of four. The findings shine new light on the earliest foundations of children's peer evaluations.