Poster #222 - Children’s Developing Understanding of Competition and Intergroup processes

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Children frequently experience competition, either in an inter-individual (i.e. competitions between individual actors or players; Insko, Wildschut, Cohen, & Chester, 2013) and intergroup (i.e. competition between groups, Cikara, Botvinick & Fiske, 2011) contexts. These contexts yield importance for children in terms of developing peer relationships, social identities and belonging, as well as in the enhancement of self-esteem. Furthermore, experiences of intergroup competition may shape children’s developing understanding of group dynamics and reasoning about group interactions and other peers involved in these interactions (e.g., Abrams, Rutland & Cameron, 2003; Rutland, Killen & Abrams, 2010). This may subsequently influence the development of intergroup attitudes and behaviours towards others on the basis of ethnicity, gender, or nationality (McGuire, Manstead & Rutland, 2017).
To examine children’s developing understanding of competitive contexts within school, and how this may begin to shape their understanding of group dynamics more broadly, participants (aged 5-11 years old, N=30) engaged in semi-structured interviews. Interviews lasted between 20-40 minutes and asked children to consider a range of features and facets of what competition involved.
Thematic analysis (in line with Braun & Clarke, 2006) revealed age and gender similarities in children’s understanding of competition. Children frequently cited team-based contexts to describe competition, that winning or losing was involved, that people often compete for first, second or third place, and that it is important to enjoy competition. As predicted, with age, children began to demonstrate understanding of the group dynamics involved in competition; for example that it is important not to “let the team down”, and that equal effort from team players is required. Children also increasingly revealed an awareness of “the taking part that counts”, whilst seeming to endorse winning as a more important focus. Gender differences appeared when considering outcomes affiliated with engaging in competitive contexts, although this differed across age groups. For example, boys more consistently viewed competition as exciting and rewarding. Younger girls more often expressed nervousness around engaging in competition, whereas older girls expressed positive feelings, particularly in the context of winning (see Figure 1).
These findings importantly shed light on the prevalence of competition in schools. Despite schools moving towards a collaborative learning environment, children are very much aware of competitive contexts, and find meaning in them. It seems that children’s understanding of social aspects of competition vary with age, with a broader understanding of group dynamics and expectations for loyalty and commitment to the group emerging amongst older participants. The next step is to test these findings experimentally in order to determine whether experiences of competition predict children’s understanding of group dynamics across different contexts.

Authors

• Stephanie Gibb, Goldsmiths University, University of London
  Presenting Author

• Sally B. Palmer, Goldsmiths, University of London
  Non-Presenting Author