1-140 - The Social Context of Preschool: Teacher and Peer Relationships

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Teachers and peers serve as key socializing forces in preschool, familiarizing young children with both academic and social endeavors. Teachers shape academic success through their use of effective practices and encourage social development through their facilitation of peer interactions. Peers provide children with opportunities to form stable friendships with similar and dissimilar others and to practice conflict resolution. The papers in this symposium focus on the social context of preschool with a particular emphasis on teacher and peer relationships.

The first paper focuses on understanding the social context of preschool teachers. Using teacher survey data and social network data, this presentation will explore how preschool teachers are distributed across early childhood education programs in a large city and will examine associations between their advice networks, individual characteristics, experiences of stress, efficacy, and quality of classroom practices. The second paper focuses on understanding the social context of preschool peers. Using observational measures of children’s peer networks and temperament traits, this presentation will examine how children’s social play relationships shape their personality over time, and vice versa. The third paper focuses on both teachers and peers. Using teacher-reported data and observational data, this presentation will investigate the degree to which teachers facilitate cross-gender and cross-ethnic social relationships in response to their perceptions of the frequency and quality of these relationships. Drawing on his expertise in teacher and peer influences in preschool, our discussant will integrate findings across papers.

Sub Unit

• Social Relationships

Chair

• Jennifer Watling Neal, Michigan State University

Discussant

• Cary Roseth, Michigan State University

Individual Presentations

• Implementation of Pre-K for All: The role of teachers’ social and professional networks - Presenting Author: Elise Cappella, New York University; Travis Cramer, New York University; Carlos Quirola, New York University; Ashley Fallon, New York University; Natalia Rojas, New York University; C Cybele Raver, New York University

• Co-Development of Preschoolers’ Temperament Traits and Social Play Networks over an Entire School Year - Presenting Author: Jennifer Watling Neal, Michigan State University; C. Emily Durbin, Michigan State University; Allison Gornik, Michigan State University; Sharon Lo, Michigan State University

• Preschool Teachers’ Perceptions of Peer Interactions and their Facilitation of Segregated and Integrated Peer Groups - Presenting Author: Kristen Granger, Arizona State University; Laura Hanish, Arizona State University; Dawn DeLay, Arizona State University; Olga Kornienko, Arizona State University; Richard Fabes, Arizona State University; Carol Lynn Martin, Arizona State University