In this study we described development of boys’ and girls’ games on the school playground at recess as they progressed across the first year of primary school in London (UK) and Minneapolis (USA) in ...order to document age‐related trends in games during this period and to examine the predictive role of games in children's adjustment to school and more general social adjustment. Consistent with expectations, games accounted for a significant portion of children’s, but especially boys’, behavior during recess. American children played games more frequently, especially simple games, relative to English children. Consistent with expectation, the complexity of games increased, especially for boys, across the school year for children in both countries. We also examined the extent to which facility with games forecasted adjustment to school and social adjustment. Games predicted both, but only in the USA sample. Results are discussed in terms of games being an important developmental task for children of this age. Implications for future research and educational policy are discussed.
This article examines the amount of middle school students' bullying and nonbullying behaviors observed in three less-structured school venues: the monthly school dance, the cafeteria, and the ...locker/hall area. Two questions guided our analysis: (a) How do students' bullying and victimization behaviors and nonbullying social behaviors vary by context? (b) How does social status as a bully or target of bullying influence students attendance at school dances? Findings revealed that, although one school showed much higher incidences of aggression, overall the amount of bullying behavior observed was low compared to nonbullying behaviors. When bullying behavior was observed, it was most often in the cafeteria and least often at the school dances, and there were very few incidences of aggression at the school dances. Rates of dance attendance showed that although students classified as bullies by peer nomination data were likely to attend dances at both schools, students classified as victims were likely to attend dances only at the school with almost no incidences of aggression. Implications for working with children who bully and the victims of their behavior, as well as further research, are discussed.
Some devalue recess because they assume it to be a waste of time. There is no theory or empirical evidence to support this point of view. There is, however, abundant and clear evidence that recess ...has beneficial effects on children's social competence and academic performance. The author tells how his interest in standardized tests led him to years of recess study, compares recess survey findings in the United States to those in the United Kingdom, and summarizes the benefits of recess for school performance.
The interactive influence of preschool children's level of physical activity, sex, and time on the degree of sex segregation was assessed. A sample of nursery school children was observed across much ...of a school year, and levels of physical activity and sex segregation were sampled during their free play periods. Following sexual selection theory, we predicted a Sex × Time × Physical Activity interaction on segregation such that high-activity girls early in the school year would interact with boys but, with time, the high-activity girls would be segregated among themselves. Boys (both high- and low-activity) should remain segregated across the year. The hypothesis was supported, and results are discussed in terms of the interactive role of biology and socialization on sex segregation.
In this longitudinal, observational study of heterosexual interaction at middle school dances we examined the degree to which boys' and girls' groups became more gender integrated over time. The ...results show groups became more integrated over time with the pattern differing by gender. Boys had a relatively low level of contact with girls over the early months with an accelerated increase in the latter months. Girls had an increase in contact with boys over the early months but then a decrease in contact over the latter months. Further, changes in the dynamic covariate, aggression, were associated with changes in integration, and the static covariate, initial physical attractiveness, was predictive of integration trajectories. Physical attractiveness and aggression did relate to gender integration, but counter to our hypotheses, each strategy did not vary by gender, as predicted by sexual selection theory. Results are discussed in terms of different methods in assessing the roles of aggression and physical attractiveness in gender integration.
In this 2-year longitudinal study, we hypothesized that sex of the human child (
Homo sapiens
), differences in physical activity, and time of the year would interact to influence preschool ...children's sex segregation. We also hypothesized that activity would differentially relate to peer rejection for boys and girls. Consistent with the first hypothesis, high-activity girls started off as the most integrated group but became more segregated with time, whereas high-activity boys remained the most segregated group across the duration of the study. The second hypothesis was also supported: For girls only, activity was significantly related to peer rejection during Year 1 only, the time when high-activity girls also interacted frequently with boys. Results are discussed in terms of sexual selection theory and gender boundary violations.
This study examines how teachers' use of affective strategies (voice intonation, dramatization, personal involvement comments) during the reading and discussion of books influence young children's ...affective reactions (dramatization, personal engagement, language play comments). Twenty kindergarten teachers read four books, two fiction and two information ones (narrative/expository text). We found significant differences in both teachers' affective presentation and young children's affective reactions between fiction and information books, between the two fiction books but not between the narrative and expository text. A strong bi-directional relationship was found between teachers' affective presentation of stories and young children's affective reactions. In particular, teachers' personal involvement comments prompted children's personal engagement reactions, teachers' reenactment was followed by children's imitations of such reenactments and teachers' voice intonation elicited children's personal engagement comments. On the other hand, children's use of paralinguistic cues and personal engagement comments reinforced teachers' use of voice intonation and personal involvement comments. Finally, text features, such as rhyming, were followed by children's language play. Cette étude examine comment l'emploi de stratégies affectives (intonation, dramatisation, commentaire d'engagement personnel) par les enseignants, pendant la lecture et discussion des livres, influence les réactions affective des enfants (dramatisation, engagement personnel, jeu linguistique). Vingt enseignants des écoles maternelles ont lu quatre livres -deux livre de littérature et deux livre instructifs (texte narratif/d'exposition). Nous avons trouvé des différences considérable entre les livres de littérature et les livres instructifs ainsi qu'entre les deux livres de littérature, main pas entre le texte narratif et celui d'exposition. On a trouvé une forte relation bidirectionnelle entre la présentation affective des histoires par les enseignants et les réactions affectives des enfants. En particulier, le commentaire personnel des enseignants a incité les enfants aux réactions d'engagement personnel; la reconstitution par les enseignants a été suivie par l'imitation de cette reconstitution par les enfants; l'intonation employée par les enseignants a provoqué des commentaires d'engagement personnel par les enfants. Par contre, l'emploi de signaux paralinguistiques et des commentaires personnels par les enfants a renforcé l'emploi d'intonation et des commentaires personnels par les enseignants. Finalement, les traits du texte comme la rime ont été suivi par le jeu linguistique des enfants.
It is argued that studies of early adolescent peer victimization and bullying should be longitudinal because of the dynamism of this developmental period. Traditional methods for analyzing ...longitudinal data are inadequate because of the strict data requirements and inflexibility of models. A better alternative is linear mixed models (LMMs) for repeated measures. LMMs have less restrictive data requirements and much flexibility in the type of models that may be specified. Using empirical data from middle school students, it is shown how LMMs can be used to examine three major aspects of change in dominance and bullying. The first is unconditional change, which involves treating the sample as an entire group and modeling the mean trajectories of dominance and bullying over time. The second is conditional change, which involves examining gender differences in mean change of dominance and bullying over time. The third is dynamic change, which involves examining the longitudinal covariation between bullying and dominance controlling for trajectory effects. The algebra of the LMMs is presented from a multilevel perspective assuming a random effects model. The results are discussed in terms of dominance theory and highlight the advantages of the LMM approach to data analysis in the study of adolescent peer victimization and bullying.
This longitudinal study describes playground games of children progressing across their first year of schooling. Boys, in comparison with girls, played more games, especially chase and ball games, ...and played a greater variety of games. Also, the variety of boys' games increased across the school year. Girls played more verbal games than boys. The study found that facility with games forecast boys' social competence and both boys' and girls' adjustment to first grade. Children's groups remained ethnically segregated across the school year. Results are discussed in terms of the role of games as an important developmental task during middle childhood. (DIPF/Orig.).
