ERIC Number: ED229142
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1983-Apr
Pages: 16
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
An Analysis of Social Interactions between Preschool Children and Adults.
Atwater, Jane B.; Morris, Edward K.
A study investigated (1) how adult responses vary with children who display different rates of positive social behaviors, and (2) predictive sequential relationships between specific types of child and adult behavior within an interaction. Pretest data were used to select nine girls from 4 to 6 years of age who ranged from low to high in their composite performance on three criterion behaviors: visual attention to adults, smiling, and spontaneous talking. Assigned to low-, moderate-, or high-performance groups, each child participated in one 10-minute dyadic interaction with each of six adult subjects. Adults blind to the purpose of the study were instructed to present two tasks to the children and to provide help and information they thought appropriate. During interactions, observation and videotapes were used to collect data on both children and adults. Information was also obtained about children's work on the tasks, verbal and nonverbal responsiveness to questions, and two types of spontaneous comments. Five aspects of adult behavior were examined: positive nonverbal behavior, positive verbal feedback, humor, positive personal comments about the child, and questions and response preemptions. A stepwise discriminant analysis, repeated measures analysis of variance; and a lag-1, bivariate sequential analysis on behavioral data segmented into 10-second units, were employed to analyze the data. Results are discussed. (RH)
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Kansas Univ., Lawrence. General Research Fund.
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A