Concurrent and longitudinal relations between children's playground behavior and social preference, victimization, and bullying

Prior research with contrived play groups suggests that how children intera ct with one another can influence their social relationships, but few studi es have been carried out to determine if this is the case in naturalistic s ettings. This study examined the concurrent and longitudinal links between four observational measures of 8- to 9-year-old children's (N = 89) playgro und behaviors/peer contacts (Alone, Conversation, Group Size, and Network) and three sociometric measures of their peer relationships (Social Preferen ce, Bully, and Victim). The latter were assessed at 2 points within a schoo l year, the first corresponding with the playground observations and the se cond 5 months later. Several of the concurrent correlations were found to b e significant. For boys, Group Size was positively correlated with Bully Sc ore and Social Preference Score, but negatively correlated with Victim Scor e; and time Alone was positively correlated with Victim Score. For girls, t ime Alone was positively correlated with Victim Score; Network was negative ly correlated with Bully Store but positively correlated with Social Prefer ence Score; and Group Size was positively correlated with Social Preference Score. The longitudinal analyses indicated that for boys, elevated levels of time Alone and, separately, Conversation, predicted the highest increase s in Victim Score. For girls, low levels of time Alone predicted the sharpe st increases in Social Preference Score. There was also some marginally sig nificant evidence, p <.06, that among girls, high levels of time Alone pred icted the greatest increases in Bully Score, and high levels of Conversatio n predicted the greatest increases in Social Preference Score. The theoreti cal and practical importance of these links between children's nonaggressiv e playground behaviors and their emerging peer relationships are discussed.