TY - JOUR PY - 2003// TI - Sequential transition patterns of preschoolers' social interactions during child-initiated play: Is parallel-aware play a bidirectional bridge to other play states? JO - Early childhood research quarterly A1 - Robinson, Clyde C. A1 - Anderson, Genan T. A1 - Porter, Christin L. A1 - Hart, Craig H. A1 - Wouden-Miller, Melissa SP - 3 EP - 21 VL - 18 IS - 1 N2 - Lag-sequential analysis was used to explore the simultaneous sequential transition patterns of preschoolers' social play within natural classroom settings. Subjects were 167 middle- and lower-income 4-year-olds (90 boys and 77 girls) videotaped in three child-initiated play centers. Results indicated that the proportion of social-play states did not vary during the play episodes even when accounting for type of activity center, gender, and SES. Findings also revealed that, during and within child-initiated play centers, a reciprocal relationship existed between parallel-aware and other social-play states. Specifically, knowing preschoolers who were in parallel-aware play significantly increased the likelihood of predicting their shifts into cooperative-social and onlooker play; while knowing children were in cooperative-social, onlooker, and solitary-constructive play predicted shifts into parallel-aware play. Likewise, similar to school-age children's group-entry patterns, preschoolers exhibited a three-step sequential play pattern of going from onlooker behavior into parallel-aware play then into cooperative-social play during child-initiated activities. Also supported was the notion that during child-initiated play episodes parallel-aware play is more than a static bridge into cooperative-social play; it is a dynamic bidirectional crossroad between other social-play states.

LA - SN - 0885-2006 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2006(03)00003-6 ID - ref1 ER -