INTERCULTURAL RELATIONSHIPS DURING PLAY I N THE ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL - ASTUDY IN QUEBEC OUTSIDE MONTREAL

Research on interracial relationships between children has been widely done with white and black American children. The present study was co nducted in a middle-sized town in Quebec in order to assess the tenden cy of French-speaking children, in the 1st, 3rd and 4th grades, to spe nd playtime with the 25% of their classmates who are Asian and Latin-A merican. Using a class picture, each subject could identify all the ch ildren with whom he liked or did not like to play. Besides confirming a same-sex preference, the results show, as in previous studies, a ten dency of the French-speaking children, starting at the 3rd grade level , to establish a network of relationships where the children from the Asian and Latin-American ethnic groups were not totally integrated. Ho wever, these children are not shut out and very few French-speaking ch ildren exclude them totally. These results are analysed in relation wi th general characteristics of the French-speaking people of Quebec.