Citation

Phinney JS, Feshbach ND, Farver JA. Early Child Res. Q. 1986; 1(3): 207-219.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1986, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0885-2006(86)90030-X

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Episodes of children's crying and children's and teachers' responses to crying were observed in natural preschool settings using an event-sampling technique. Narrative descriptions of the episodes were coded as to cause of crying, teacher response, peer response, and context. The most common causes of crying were peer related. Peers responded to about 20% of the crying incidents. Children's responses to crying, in order of frequency, were approaches, comments, stares, mediates, consoles, and chastises. Girls were twice as likely to be consoled as boys. Older preschoolers responded more frequently than younger children, and children with more friends responded more often than those with fewer friends. Children who responded more frequently were also those who themselves cried more. The frequency of negative (chastising) responses was correlated with that of prosocial responses. It was concluded that an overriding factor in response to crying may be the degree of the child's social involvement with peers.