Parental assessment of peer play: Development and validation of the parent version of the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the construct validity of the parent version of the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale (PIPPS) and to compare it with the teacher version. PIPPS were collected on 297 urban Head Start children. The Parent PIPPS replicated the three-factor solution found with the teacher version, supporting the following constructs of peer play: Play Interaction, Play Disruption, and Play Disconnection. Factor matching and canonical correlational analyses examining the relationship between the parent and teacher versions of the PIPPS revealed significant one-to-one matches between hypothesized like factors. Additionally, analyses of overlapping variance between versions indicated a significant degree of overlap. Implications of the findings for involvement of parents in the assessment process and research on the continuity and discontinuity between home and school environments for low-income, urban children were discussed.     

Contextually-relevant validation of peer play constructs with African American head start children: Penn interactive peer play scale

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the construct and concurrent validity of a modified version of the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale (PIPPS), a teacher-rating instrument of interactive play behaviors of preschool children. PIPPS were collected on 523 urban African American Head Start children. The PIPPS scales were confirmed, supporting the following constructs of peer play: Play Interaction, Play Disruption, and Play Disconnection. The 32-item PIPPS represented a significant improvement over the 36-item version. Scale validity was established using conceptually related indicators of social competence including teacher report, peer report, and direct play observation data. Children who evidenced high interactive play ratings received high social skill ratings from teachers, and were well liked by peers and engaged during play sessions. Children who were disruptive in play received ratings of low self-control and were more likely to be engaged in solitary play. Disconnection in play was associated with low acceptability by peers and lack of involvement in play sessions. Practical use of the PIPPS and further study of developmentally appropriate social competencies for African American Head Start children are discussed.     

Helping behaviors: An observational study of preschool children

The present study examined the stability and circumstances of helping behaviors in the preschool classroom. Frequencies of helping/nonhelping behaviors, including the type and circumstance of helping behavior, were observed for 51 children during free play by two judges. The frequency of helping behaviors was not correlated with age or sex and was not stable over four 10-min observation periods. Helping behaviors may depend on the details of evoking situations. The majority of all helping acts are performed during nonimaginary play. Each child performed at least one real helping act: the majority of children performed at least one self-initiated helping act. Most helping acts occur in response to a request from a teacher. Results were interpreted to support that most preschool children are capable of engaging in helping acts; however, in the preschool classroom, teachers elicit most helping behaviors.     

Reinforcing contingencies for sex-role behaviors in preschool children

Two groups of disadvantaged Afro-American children, a total of 30 boys and 25 girls, mean age about 42 months; and two groups of middle- and upper-middle-class children, most of them white, 35 boys and 31 girls, mean age about 44.5 months, were observed for patterns of sex-role-characteristic behavior and peer and teacher response to such behavior. At all times, the children in the two experimental groups were being taught by seven women and seven or eight men, about half of whom were Afro-American, half white-Anglo, and who were mixed in the two schools by race but evenly divided by sex. Boys engaged in 16% sex-characteristic behavior, 5.7% cross-sex behavior. The same figures for girls were 18 and 6%. There were no pattern or percentage differences by race or social status of children. Women teachers gave most of their sex-role connected rewards for feminine behavior to both boys and girls. Men teachers rewarded more equably, masculine behaviors for boys, feminine behaviors for girls. Children rewarded mainly their own sex, and gave rewards for sex characteristic behavior. The pattern was even clearer for boys than for girls. In Discussion, comparisons are made with other somewhat similar studies.     

Profiles of social competence among low-income African American preschool children

Relations between children's personal attributes and peer play competence were investigated in a sample of 141 African American preschool children who participated in Head Start. Variable-oriented analyses confirmed that dispositions of temperament, emotion regulation, autonomy, and language were related to children's peer play competence in the classroom. Person-oriented analyses revealed distinctive profiles of personal attributes linked to adaptive preschool social functioning. A small group of resilient children whose profile was characterized by highly adaptable temperament, ability to approach new situations, and above average vocabulary development evidenced the greatest social competence with peers. Children who were disruptive with peers were equally divided between two profiles characterized by inattention and activity, but with differential performance on vocabulary tasks. A profile containing calm, reticent children was the group least likely to engage in disruptive peer play. Inspection of the six profiles revealed the within-group variability for this economically disadvantaged sample and illustrated the differential importance of temperament, regulation, and language constructs. Findings from the profile analyses and relations with peer competence inform the study of resilience in social development for urban African American children who participate in early intervention preschool programs.     

Thematic Fantasy Play: Effects on the perspective-taking ability of preschool children

This study primarily examined the effects of thematic fantasy play on the perspective-taking ability of preschool children. A secondary investigation addressed the effects of play on the spontaneous play behaviour of young children. Based on the pretest-posttest control group design, 54 children (mean age=5.0 years) from two intact classes (n=27) of a private kindergarten were administered measures representing three areas of perceptual, cognitive and affective perspective-taking. Results of analysis of covariance indicated that subjects in the thematic fantasy play condition performed significantly better than the control group on total and perceptual perspective-taking measures (p<.05). In addition, chi-square analysis indicated that changes in spontaneous play was significant for the experimental group (p<.05) Findings were discussed in terms of their practical implications for curriculum design and teacher training, and further research to ascertain the permanency of play effects was recommended.     

Prevalence of father-child rough-and-tumble play and physical aggression in preschool children

Three samples of francophone subjects from Quebec (Canada) are used to establish the prevalence of parent-child RTP according to different personal, social and family variables, and to verify if children who engage in more RTP with their father exhibit less physical aggression towards other children and are more competitive without resorting to aggression. Our results showed that 24 to 43% of fathers engaged in RTP with their children on a daily basis, and only 4 to 16% of fathers never do. Moreover, personal characteristics such as the age and sex of the participants seemed to have a greater influence on the frequency of parent-child RTP than variables related for example to work, socio-economic conditions, or the living environment. The hypothesis that children who engage in more RTP with their fathers display less physical aggression towards their peers is invalidated here. We have concluded that it is important that not only RTP frequency, but also and especially indicators of RTP quality be used. Future observational studies of father-child RTP are required in order to do so. Finally, certain preliminary results support the hypothesis that father-child RTP fosters the development of the competition skills in children without using aggression.     

Peer group interaction of physically abused children

The aim of this research study was to test the assumption that physically abused children differ significantly from their non-abused peers along dimensions which characterize abusing adults and other social deviants. Nineteen 5-10 year-old physically abused children and 38 non-abused peers were assessed by video-taped behavioral observations during free-flowing social interaction in a playroom. The dimensions tapped were: aggression, warmth, fear, pleasure, concentration, imagination and social participation. The dimension social participation was split into three variables: total social participation, negative participation and positive participation. The data from these nine dimensions was subject to a Pearson's correlation. Given the high correlation amongst these variables the data was subject to a principal components analysis with varimax rotation. From this analysis two components emerged which explained 76.9% of the total variance. These components were designated "social interaction" (component 1) and "hostility" (component 2) and were then subject to analyses of variance. A significant difference was found between the two groups on the "social interaction" component. The implications of these findings were explored and treatment possibilities examined.     

Solitary play and convergent and divergent thinking skills in preschool children

This study examined the relationship between multiple forms of solitary play (solitary-active, solitary-passive, reticence) and convergent and divergent thinking. Seventy-two children (42 boys, 30 girls, M age=4.5 years) were observed and social and cognitive play, types and use of materials were recorded. All children were administered the Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement Test (TCAM) (Torrance, 1981) to assess divergent thinking and the PPVT test and the Picture Completion subtest (WISC-R) to measure convergent thinking. Reticent behavior was more strongly negatively associated with convergent and divergent thinking than either solitary-active or solitary-passive play, whereas solitary-active play was more strongly positively related to divergent thinking. Associations between types of materials (open-, closed-ended) and use (intended, nonintended ways) and (a) types of solitary players and (b) thinking skills were investigated. Findings are discussed in terms of recent theoretical advances in understanding types of solitary activity and links with thinking skills. Practical recommendations are advanced for supporting solitary play in the early childhood classroom.     

Australian Play School: viewing and post-viewing behaviours in young children

Australian Play School is a children’s television programme developed in collaboration with early childhood educators. It is screened free to air across Australia. Two hundred and twenty-four adult carers of young children aged 1–8?years completed an online survey via a link on the Play School website. The survey addressed child behaviours during and after viewing, and adult perceptions about which programme segments were most engaging to the child. Play School elicited a large number and variety of behavioural responses from children during and after viewing. The types of responses elicited suggest that viewing the programme may be beneficial for children’s development and learning. Results were tempered by the age of the child and this, as well as the impact of carer attitudes and carer input during and after viewing, needs to be explored further before results are translated into recommendations for programming and optimal viewing strategies.     

‘Good-fit’ teacher-child play interactions and the subsequent autonomous play of preschool children

The purpose of this study was to test a model of adult-child play interactions in preschool classrooms, based on the work of Vygotsky and neo-Vygotskian scholars. The model predicts that adults will tailor the play support they provide to the immediate needs of individual children, and that this will lead to subsequent independent play. Classroom interactions between eight preschool teachers and 32 students were videotaped, transcribed, and analyzed over a six-month period. Interviews were conducted with the eight adult participants to confirm and elucidate findings from observed classroom behaviors. Distinct types of play support needed by children and given by teachers were identified. These were operationally defined; definitions were used to create a coding system that was found to have high inter-rater reliability. Sequential analyses were conducted to determine goodness-of-fit between teacher responses and children's needs. Behavioral outcomes of a good fit were also examined. Findings support the model tested here. Teachers often responded to children's play with behaviors matching the level of support needed. Good-fit interactions more frequently led to autonomous subsequent play than poor-fit interactions.     

Relation of psycholinguistic development to imaginative play of disadvantaged preschool children

The relation of imaginative play to psycholinguistic development was investigated in a sample of disadvantaged preschool children. The children were assigned to high and low play groups based on their level of play organization. The high play group was significantly more mature in overall psycholinguistic development than the low play group. Further analyses revealed that while the groups did not vary in Auditory Reception, the high play group earned more advanced scores on the Auditory-Vocal Association and Verbal Expression tasks that did the low play group. Moreover, the high play group engaged in more task-relevant speech during play than did the low play group, although the groups did not differ in amount of task-irrelevant speech. The role of psycholinguistic, cognitive, and environmental factors in the development and organization of imaginative play was discussed.     

Assessing the play beliefs of African American mothers with preschool children

A rating scale measuring parent beliefs about play was developed and validated with a sample of 224 African American mothers of children attending Head Start. Principal components analyses of the Parent Play Beliefs Scale (PPBS) revealed two factors, Play Support and Academic Focus, which capture parent attitudes regarding the developmental significance of play. Maternal ratings of Play Support correlated positively with ratings of children's interactive peer play and were positively associated with parent education. Maternal ratings of Academic Focus were negatively correlated with prosocial peer play ratings and positively correlated with ratings of disruptive and disconnected play in children. Findings support the psychometric utility of the new measure. Future directions involving parent play beliefs in conceptual models of children's social competence during early childhood are discussed.     

Multidimensional assessment of emotional and behavioral adjustment problems of low-income preschool children: development and initial validation

The Adjustment Scales for Preschool Intervention (ASPI) was developed and tested for use in preschool programs serving low-income children. The ASPI is a measure of emotional and behavioral adjustment problems observed within routine classroom situations. Principal components analyses revealed five reliable behavioral dimensions: Aggressive, Withdrawn-Low Energy, Socially Reticent, Oppositional, and Inattentive/Hyperactive and two higher-order dimensions: Overactive and Underactive problem behaviors. Concurrent criterion validity of these dimensions was supported by multivariate indicators of peer social competence and classroom behavior problems. Age and gender analyses indicated that boys showed higher levels of overactive behavior than girls and that younger preschool children evidenced more underactive and inattentive behavior than older preschool children. Situational analyses indicated that situations requiring more initiation and self-regulation were associated with more problematic behaviors.     

Socialization factors in the cognitive style and play of young children

This study identified preschool children’s social factors based on their cognitive style. Sex and age were also considered. Children’s cognitive style and play were assessed. Two dimensions of social behaviors in the different forms of play for field dependent (FD) and field independent (FI) children were identified through factor analysis. FD children engaged in more social activities and forms of play than did FI children. FD children, more than FI children, have more play behaviors, participate more in all the play areas, select social play areas, and engage more in associative play.     

Learning contexts for young children in Chile: process quality assessment in preschool centres

ITERS (Infant and Toddler Environment Rating Scale), ECERS (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale) and SACERS (School Age Care Environment Rating Scale) are used to measure process quality. The psychometric characteristics of the three scales are established, and high reliability and adequate validity are observed. The global quality process for the classrooms under study is less than good; process quality based on the direct interaction of adults with children in the classroom is better when compared with quality related to the experiences that children have with learning materials, equipment and space. The associations between child development outcomes and childcare quality are examined. Vocabulary, social development and adaptive behaviour show a strong and positive association with ECERS. Hierarchical regression analyses show that preschool quality has a significant and persistent effect in the variation of child outcomes (5%). These effects are maintained three years later, when children are in primary school (8%).