Citation

Brown WH, Fox JJ, Brady MP. Educ. Treat. Child. 1987; 10(3): 247-258.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1987, West Virginia University Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of spatial density on 3-and 4-year-old children's social behavior during freeplay periods. Four target children and six peers were observed in both small freeplay areas with 19.3 square feet per child and large freeplay areas with 58 square feet per child. A partial interval observation system was used to assess the children's social responding. An alternating treatments design was employed to evaluate the effects of the two different freeplay conditions. Group data analyses showed that the restricted freeplay setting resulted in a greater percentage of intervals with child-child socially directed behavior. Individual analyses indicated that three of the four target children had small but consistent patterns of increased social responding in the small freeplay condition. Based on the results of this study, spatial density is conceptualized as a setting factor for the social behavior of three of the children.

Language: en