Citation

Chafel JA. Early Child Res. Q. 1986; 1(2): 155-165.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1986, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0885-2006(86)90026-8

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper analyzes the structure of young children's social comparison exchanges in two preschool settings. Twenty-six children (15 boys and 11 girls), with a mean age of 4 years, 8 months, served as subjects. Children were observed during free play for 5-minute intervals; observations followed an early form of specimen description. Mosatche and Bragonier's (1981) categories were used to identify social comparison statements in the specimen descriptions. To define antecedents and consequences of the social comparison utterances, categories were inductively derived from the data. Several categories of antecedent, social comparison, and consequent events were found to be systematically related.