"Happy You're Playing With Me": Mixed-Methods Approach to Exploring How Temperament Predicts Peer Engagement

• In Event: Friends, Enemies, and Bullies: Peer Relationships in School

Abstract

This study explores how preschoolers with different temperamental traits experience peer engagement, and whether a new qualitative tool provides additional information about peer interactions to existing measures. Quantitative analyses on data from 106 children (44.8% males) showed that temperament predicted peer engagement; children with higher effortful control, lower surgency/extraversion, and lower negative affectivity were perceived by teachers to be more interactive and less disruptive. Qualitative observations on a sub-sample of four children helped identify inhibition in easygoing, the effect of preferred peers on high surgency/extraverted, and finally the significance of detecting quiet negative affect. The importance of understanding context and content of peer interactions for children with different temperamental traits is also discussed, especially for practical application in the classroom.

Authors

• Sanchari Banerjee, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Kristen L Bub, University of Georgia - Athens