Play

• play is voluntary activities, particulary those of children, with no specific motivation beyond their inherent enjoyment

• The Development of Children’s Social Play

  • Non-Social Types of Play

    • unoccupied play

    • onlooker play

    • solitary play

  • Social types of play

    • parallel play

    • associative play

    • cooperative play

• play teaches children cooperation, how to take turns and gives them the opportunity to try out social roles

• children experience happiness and learn how to practice empathy and concern for others

• it also fosters cognitive development by giving children opportunities to practice problem solving, strengthen memory, and express creativity

• it also encourages language development

• physical play develops motor skills, coordination, balance and strength

  • physical play also promotes emotion regulation and increases positive emotions

• play is an essential part of child development

• play can help children cope with difficult situations and a therapeutic technique known as child-centered play therapy (CCPT) encourages children to express thoughts and emotions through free play

  • CCPT is effective in reducing childen’s externalizing symptoms, internalizing symptoms as well as improving their social lives

Friendships

• a friend is a person an individual has an intimate, reciprocated, positive relationship

Children’s Choice of Friends

• children tend to be friends with peers who are friendly and are social

• they also build frienships with people with similar interests and behaviour

• children tend to like peers who are like them in the cognitive maturity of their play, and levels of antisocial behaviour, acceptance by peers, shyness and levels of cooperativeness

• friends are more similar than nonfriends in academic motivation and self-perceptions of competence

• friends tend to share similar levels of negative emotions and are attribute hostile intentions to others

• proximity is a key factor for young children but their access to peers can vary widely by culture

• proximity becomes less important with age but it continues to play a role in part because of invovlement in similar activities in school

  • the majority of teenagers say school is the most common setting where they spend time with their close friends

• similar age is also a major factor

  • this may be because children are segregated by age in school in industrialized societies

• gender is also a powerful factor, and cross-gender friendships tend to be more fragile

• children tend to be friends with peers of their own racial/ethnic group

  • children who maintain cross-racial friendships tend to be leaders and relatively inclusive in social relationships and are social competent and have high self-esteem

• The fact that friends tend to be similar makes it difficult to know whether friends really affect one’s behaviour or whether children simply seek out peers who act the way they do

Developmental Changes in Friendship

• children appear to have friends as early as 2 years old

• by 12-18 months, they seem to have a preference for some children, by 24 months they begin to develop skills that allow greater complexity in social interactions

• by 3-4 years of age, children can make and maintain friendships and can identify best friends

• from ages 5+ children who are friends communicate and cooperate better than nonfriends

  • friends also fight more often but work it out better than nonfriends

• children increasingly define their friendships in terms of companionship, similarity in interests, acceptance, trust, genuineness, mutual admiration, and loyalty

• during adolescence friendships become an increasingly important source of intimacy and self-disclosure as well as honest feedback

  • friendships become more exclusive as well, and they can be less stable

• children’s reasoning about friendships are a consequence of age-related changes related to their ability to take others’ perspectives

  • thinking about friendhsips is limited to the degree to which they consider issues beyond their own needs

The Role of Technology

• social technologies play an increasingly significant role in peer interactions of children and adolescents

• there is a gender different regarding which modes of communication most used; girls prefer texts & phone calls more than boys that use gaming sites isntead

• greater anonymity, less emphasis on physical appearance, more control over interactions, finding similar peers, 24/7 access, and enjoyment have faciliated online friendships

• the more children used instant messaging, the more comfortable they were introducing themselves to new people and suggested hanging out to new friends

• youth who already have good social skills benefit from the Internet and related forms of technology when it comes to developing friendships but those who are shy and withdrawn tend to inappropriately vent online which hurts further interactions with peers (rich-get-richer hypothesis)

  • essentially, socially competent people may benefit most from the internet

• another hypothesis is the social-compensation hypothesis which argues that social media can be beneficial for lonely, depressed, and socially anxious teenagers because they can spend more time revising what they say.

• online communication seems to foster self-disclosure, enhance friendship quality, and let teenagers connect with people to strengthen relationships

Effects of Friendships on Psychological Functioning and Behaviour

Support and Validation

• friends can provide a source of emotional support & security

• children who experience chronic friendlesness are more likely than children with friends to develop symptoms of depression and social withdrawal

• the support of friends can be particularly important during periods of transition

• friendships may serve as a buffer against unplesant experiences like being yelled at my teacher or being excluded by peers

• the degree to which friends provide caring and support generally increases from childhood to adolescence

The Development of Social and Cognitive Skills

• friendships provide a context for the development of social skills and knowledge children need to form positive relationships with others

• positive behaviours such as cooperation and negotiation are more common among friends than nonfriends

• young children who discuss emotions with friends have a better understanding of others’ mental and emotional states than those who do not

• friendship provides other avenues to social and cognitive development, like through gossip which teaches them about peer norms and when to express emotions

• open criticism promotes cognitive skills and enhances performance on creative tasks

• having friends enhances children’s social and emotional health

• having close, reciprocated friendships in elementary school has been linked to a variety of positive psychological and behavioural outcomes for children, even into adulthood

The Possible Costs of Friendships and Negative Peer Interactions

Agression and disruptiveness

• if friends encourage negative behaviours instead of positive ones, they can be a negative influence, contributing to the likelihood that a child or adolescent will engage in violence, drug use, or other negative behaviours

• aggressive and disruptive children may gravitate towards peers who are similar to themselves in temperament, preferred activities, or attitudes (meaning they take an active role in creating their own peer group)

  • friends affect one another’s behaviour too (deviance training)

Alcohol and substance abuse

• teenagers tend to choose friends who are similar to themselves in terms of drinking and use of drugs

• youth who are easily influenced seem to be particularly vulnerable to any pressure of usage of drugs and alochol

• teenager’s use of alcohol and drugs and their friends’ substance use mutually reinforces each other, often resulting in an escalation of use

• youth with similar genetically based temperamental characteristics like risk-taking may be drawn to one another and drugs and alcohol, so there may be a correlation between genetics and their socialization experiences

• the extent to which friends’ use of drugs and alcohol may put individuals at risk for use seems to depend in part on the nature of the child-parent relationship

Bullying and Victimization

• bullying results from a power imbalance

• the main sources of power were that the bully could influence what other’s thought of them, they were more popular, were stronger, and had more money

  • girls are more likely than boys to be bullied

• bullying happens throughout the school groups as well as virtually through cyberbullying & many of the tendences in face-to-face bullying are mirrored in the context of cyberbullying

• bullying behaviour is influenced by a range of individual, home, school, neighbourhood, and societal factors

• bullies tend to be callous, susceptible to peer pressure, higher in social status, and tend to have harsh and insensitive parents

• victims are likely to be rejected by peers, feel depressed, do poorly school, and can be aggressive

  • hereditary factors associated with aggression appear to predict peer victimization, showing that personal characteristics may increase hte likelihood of children becoming both aggressive and victimized

• many children engage in social bullying behaviours known as relational aggression which involves excluding others from the social group and attempting to harm other’s relationships

  • it is aimed at damaging the victim’s peer relationships

  • it is most common among high-status girls

Gender Differences in the Functions of Friendships

• girls are more likely than boys to desire closeness and dependency in friendships, but also worry about abandonment, loneliness, hurting others, peers’ evaluations, and loss of relationships if they express anger

• by age 12, girls feel their friendships are more intimate and caring that those of boys

  • girls also report getting more upset than boys when friends are unreliable and unspportive

  • girls also report more friendship-related stress

• despite these differences in peer relationship stress, girls’ relationships with peers are just as stable as those of boys

• girls are more likely than boys to co-ruminate with close friends, and girls who are depressed seem more susceptible to the anxiety or depression of their friends

• boys’ and girls’ friendships do not differ much in terms of recreational opportunities they provide but what they do varies

Status in the Peer Group

Measurement of Peer Status

• the sociometric status is a measurement that reflects the degree to which children are liked or disliked by their peers

  • the 5 groups are popular, rejected, neglected, average, or controversial

• over short periods of time, children who are popular or rejected tend to remain so, children who are neglected or controversial are likely to acquire a different status

  • over long periods, children’s status is more likely to change

• over time, sociometric stability for rejected children is generally higher than for popular, neglected, or controversial children

• physical attractiveness, athleticism, status of one’s friends, children’s social behaviour, personality, cognitions about others, and goals when interacting with peers affect peer status

Popular Children

• popular is a peer status were children are viewed positively by many peers and are disliked by few

• popular children tend to be skilled at initiating interactions with peers and maintaining positive relationships with others

• they are perceived by peers and teachers as cooperative, friendly, sociable, helpful and sensitive to others

• they can regulate their own emotions and behaviours, and tend to have a relatively high number of low-conflict reciprocated friendships

• popular children are not necessarily the most likable, they have other attributes like prestige, athletic ability, physical attractiveness, or wealth that give them power over peers

  • they also tend to be aggressive and use aggressiveness to obtain goals

• they are able to control the interactions of peers

Rejected Children

• rejected is a peer status where children are liked by few peers and disliked by many

• rejected children are more likely to be motivated by the notion of getting revenge

• they also have more trouble than others in finding constructive solutions to difficult social situations

  • they suggest more hostile, demanding, and threatening strategies to deal with difficult social situations

Aggressive-rejected children

• aggressive-rejected children are children who are viewed to be prone to physical aggression, disruptive behaviour, delinqunecy, and negative behaviour such as hostility and threatening others

• they are at risk for becoming even more aggressive over time, engaging in delinquent behaviour, and exhibiting symptoms of ADHD, conduct disorder, and substance abuse

• children who are aggressive may become rejected by peers, which leads them to be both lonely and angry which they express through more aggression (cyclical)

Withdrawn-rejected children

• withdrawn-rejected children are rejected children who are socially withdrawn, wary and often timid

• they are frequently victimized by peers, feel isolated, lonely and depressed

• negative feedback loop: withdrawn children are rejected by peers, which leads them to withdraw further to avoid peer rejection

Neglected Children

• neglected children are children who are just not noticed by peers. They are withdrawn but relatively socially competent

• they are less sociable and less disruptive and are likely to back away from peer interactions that involve aggression

• they see that they receive less support from peers but are not particularly anxious about social interactions

Controversial Children

• controversial children are those who are liked by quite a few peers, and are disliked by quite a few others

• controversial children tend to hvae characteristics of both popular and rejected children

  • they tend to be aggressive, disruptive, prone to anger, but also cooperative, sociable, good at sports and humorous

  • they are socially active and tend to be group leaders

• aggressive children sometimes develop a network of aggressive friends and are accepted in their peer group, and those who start fights can be viewed as cool, making aggressive children popular

• controversial children tend to be viewed by peres as arrogant and snobbish

Cross-Cultural Similarities and Differences in Factors Related to Peer Status

• most of the research on behaviours associated with sociometric status has been condcuted in America, but findings similar to those discussed here have been obtained in a wide array of cross-cultural research

• studies from several countries have found that socially rejected children tend to be aggressive and disruptive while popular children tend to be prosocial and have leadership skills

• research in a variety of regions further indicates that rejected children that are aggressive are more likely than peers to have academic difficulties, are absent from school more frequently, and have lower grade-point averages

  • those who are aggressive are especially likely to be uninterested in school and to be viewed by peers and teachers as poor students

• research has demonstrated that certain cultural and historical differences in the characteristics associated with children’s sociometric status

  • ex. shy Chinese children were viewed by teachers as socially competent and as leaders, and were well-liked unlike their shy Western counterparts

  • this is probably becuase Chinese culture values withdrawn behaviour and Chinese children are encourged to behave accordingly

  • in contrast, Western cultures place great value on independence and self-assertion and withdrawn children in tehse cultures are viewed as socially incompetent

• thus, culture and changes in culture appear to affect children’s evaluations of what is desirable behaviour

The Role of Parents in Children’s Peer Relationships

Parent’s Strategies for Shaping Peer Relationships

• monitoring

  • parents spend a lot of time orchestrating and monitoring children’s interactions with peers

• coaching

  • children tend to be more socially skilled and more likely to be accepted by peers if their parents effectively coach them on how to interact with unfamiliar peers

Relations Between Attachment and Competence with Peers

• attachment theory maintains that whether a child’s attachment to the parent is secure or insecure affects the child’s future social competence & the quality of the child’s relationships with others, including peers

• securely attached children develop positive social expectations and are thus inclined to interact readily with others

  • they develop the foundation for understanding reciprocity in relationships, are empathic to others, more likely to be self-regulated, confident, enthusiastic and friendly

• insecure attachment is likely to impair a child’s competence with peers

  • children with insecure attachments have difficulty regulating their emotions because their parents’ inconsistent and rejecting behaviours have not taught these children how to handle emotional reactions

  • insecure attachments may be predisposed to perceive peers as hostile and are likely to be aggressive toward them

  • they may also expect rejection and try to avoid it by not interacting with peers at all

• children who are not securely attached do tend to have difficulties with peer relationships

  • throughout childhood, these children express less happiness with peers, less sympathy, and have poorer skills in resolving conflicts than securely-attached children

• securely attached children tend to be generally happy and have good social skills as found in studies with children all around the world

  • some research suggests security of attachment with fathers may be especially important for the quality of children’s and adolescents’ friendships

• individual characteristics of each child influence quality of attachments and quality of their relationships with peers

Quality of Ongoing Parent-Child Interactions and Peer Relationships

• ongoing parent-child interactions are associated wtih peer relations in much the same way attachment patterns are

  • ex. socially competent popular children tend to have warm others who discuss feelings with them, and use positive verbalizations, reasoning and explanations in their approach to parenting

• ongoing father-child interactions have found that fathers play a role in children’s peer relationships

  • ex. how affectionate fathers are to their children is linked to the positivity of children’s interactions with friends in preschool & peer acceptance in elementary school

• essentially, when the family is warm, involved and harmonious, young children tend to be sociable, socially skilled, liked by peers and cooperative becuase harmonious parenting fosters children’s self regulation

  • harsh, authoritarian discipline is associated with children being unpopular and victimized

• quality of parenting influences the degree to which children behave in socially competent ways which affects whether they are accepted by peers or not

• it is most likely that causal links are bidirectional

  • ex. in a study, it was shown that parents’ warmth predicted less, and their rejection predicted more, bullying behaviour in children later and bullying behaviour elicited more rejection and less warmth from parents even more time later

• parents can serve as a buffer when children’s peer relationships are not going well

  • children having difficulty with peers were less likely to experience increases over time in depressive symptoms if they had positive, close relatoinships with their parents

• relationships with parents may have a stronger link to mental health than peer relationships