Department of Psychology, Michigan State University.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2017 Oct;113(4):627-640. doi: 10.1037/pspp0000135. Epub 2017 Feb 2.
Children enter preschool with temperament traits that may shape or be shaped by their social interactions in the peer setting. We collected classroom observational measures of positive emotionality (PE), negative emotionality (NE), effortful control (EC), and peer social play relationships from 2 complete preschool classrooms (N = 53 children) over the course of an entire school year. Using longitudinal social network analysis, we found evidence that children's traits shaped the formation of play relationships, and that the traits of children's playmates shaped the subsequent development of children's own traits. Children who exhibited high levels of NE were less likely to form social play relationships over time. In addition, children were more likely to form play relationships with peers who were similar to their own levels of PE. Over the course of the school year, children's level of PE and EC changed such that they became more similar to their playmates in levels of these traits. Finally, we observed moderate to strong rank-order stability of behavioral observations of PE, NE, and EC across the school year. Our results provide evidence for the effects of traits on the formation of play relationships, as well as for the role of these play relationships in shaping trait expression over time. (PsycINFO Database Record
儿童进入学前阶段时就具有某些气质特征，这些特征可能会受到同伴环境中社交互动的影响，也可能会对其产生影响。我们在一整个学年中，从两个完整的学前教室（N=53 名儿童）中收集了关于积极情绪（PE）、消极情绪（NE）、努力控制（EC）和同伴社会游戏关系的课堂观察指标。使用纵向社会网络分析，我们发现有证据表明，儿童的特质会影响游戏关系的形成，而儿童玩伴的特质也会影响儿童自身特质的后续发展。表现出高水平 NE 的儿童随着时间的推移不太可能形成社交游戏关系。此外，儿童更有可能与与自己具有相似 PE 水平的同伴建立游戏关系。在整个学年中，儿童的 PE 和 EC 水平发生了变化，以至于他们在这些特质的水平上变得更加相似。最后，我们观察到儿童在整个学年中，PE、NE 和 EC 的行为观察具有中等至很强的等级稳定性。我们的研究结果为特质对游戏关系形成的影响以及这些游戏关系在随时间塑造特质表达方面的作用提供了证据。
