Collaborative Research: Socialization of Preschoolers' Beliefs across Parent and Peer Relationships

Auburn University, Auburn AL

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract Socialization of Preschoolers' Beliefs Across Parent and Peer Relationships Brian E. Vaughn & Bryan B. Korth Family relationships are the crucible within which children's social competencies are forged and honed, however, the payoff for the child's social competence is derived from interactions in the peer group. Children well equipped (by virtue of the quality of their family relationships) with interaction skills, beliefs about the desirability of social activities, and convictions that social initiations will lead to positive outcomes tend to become central, accepted members of their peer groups during childhood. Furthermore, these children frequently accumulate social power in the peer group that can be parlayed into preferential access to the physical and social resources available in the group. These facts form the crux of a paradox because parent-child relationships tend to emphasize affiliation, coherence, and nurturance/protection at the expense of competition, conflict, and deception whereas this balance is often reversed in the peer group. The question arises: What is learned in the family that prepares children for the very different social demands imposed by the peer group during early childhood? In this project, we will collect data that can begin to answer this question. Investigators from Auburn University and the University of Illinois pool their expertise in parent-child and peer relationships for this 4-year longitudinal study. A total sample of 100 families (50 at each site) will be recruited. Insofar as possible, two-parent families will be recruited (a minimum of 50% for the total sample) so that assessments of both mother-child and father-child relationships can be obtained. Assessments of sibling interactions and relationships will be obtained when possible. Because attachment theory proposes the most well articulated characterization of parent-child relationships available in the developmental sciences, assessments of both child and parent will emphasize the 'secure base' aspects of their relationship. Parents will be assessed in terms of their demonstrated ability to serve as a secure base for their child and in terms of the availability of a 'secure base script' in assessments of the adults themselves. Starting in the second project year (as the children turn 3.0-3.5 years of age) assessments will take place also in their peer groups. A standard battery of social competence assessments will be collected and friendship and social dominance status also will be ascertained. Between 3.5- 4.0 years of age, the availability of secure-base scripts in child-parent narratives will be assessed, using tasks developed for this purpose. Both classroom and parent-child assessments will continue in the third project year (as the child turns 4.0 to 4.5 years of age). Data analyses will test hypotheses concerning the stability of attachments to both parents, the organization of attachment scored from behavioral and narrative protocols, and the specific value of parent-child attachments to forming and maintaining relationships with age peers. Age appropriate measures of cognitive and personality status will also be obtained and tested both as main effects (direct predictors) and as intervening variables in the analyses testing hypotheses posed above.