Characteristics of Children’s Peer Circles across Early Childhood

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Social Relationships

Abstract

Peer relations have significant effects on multiple developmental outcomes, from the cultivation of skills and interests (Fabes, Martin, & Hanish, 2003), to socioemotional and physical health (Prinstein & Giletta, 2020). Starting in infancy most U.S. children spend time with peers, however the frequency, number, and type of peers, and the nature of peer settings may shift throughout development (Rubin et al., 2008). Specifically, young children’s peer interactions are largely centered within, or close to the home and dependent on the initiative and guidance of others (such as caregivers and siblings), while older children access a wider availability of peer groups, especially after entering school (Rubin et al., 2008). While prior work has noted changes in peer patterns beginning in elementary school (Zarbatany, Hartmann, & Rankin, 1990), few such studies have involved younger children. The current study investigated characteristics of minoritized children’s peer circles (number, type, gender and ethnicity/race of peers) from ages 1-6.
Data were drawn from a longitudinal project examining early development within a cultural and contextual framework from birth through 1st grade in urban (New York City) and diverse (33% African-American, 36% Dominican-American, 31% Mexican-American) children (n = 232, e.g. Halim et al., 2013). At every wave mothers were asked whether their children spend time around peers and, if so, to define the relationship (e.g. sibling, neighbor) gender, ethnicity, age, and setting (e.g. grandmother’s house, park) of each peer. Peers were categorized into one of four types: siblings, extended family, community, and center-based care/school.
We used multi-level mixed-modeling to analyze peer patterns. For number of peers, preliminary results show a main effect of age, F(5, 747.5) = 8.80, p<.001 with a curvilinear pattern peaking at age 3 (M = 4.50, SD = 0.14) when many U.S. children enroll in center-based care (Figure 1). An age by gender interaction F(5, 747.5) = 2.75, p<.05, indicated that boys had a greater number of peers than did girls at age 1 and 6, F(5, 747.5) = 2.28, p<.05. Also, Mexican-American mothers reported that their children had fewer peers compared to African-American and Dominican-American mothers, F(10, 747.7) = 1.92, p<.05.
The results also illustrate that the kinds of peers children are exposed to changed dramatically from age 3 to 4. For peer types, we found main effects of age for levels of reported sibling F(5, 723.24) = 13.04, p<.001, extended family F(5, 733.57) = 11.11, p<.000, community F(5, 731.98) = 2.845, p<.05, and school peers F(5, 762.50) = 15.85, p<.000 (Figure 2). Specifically, at younger ages, mothers reported higher numbers and proportions of siblings and extended family peers for their children, and lower numbers and proportions of community and center-based care/school peers. At older ages, these patterns were reversed. Our findings highlight patterns of change in children’s peer circles through early childhood, which may have implications for other aspects of development such as timing and exposure to socialization of certain attitudes, behaviors and skills. This will be further discussed in the poster, along with gender and ethnicity effects.

Authors

• Anna Bennet, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Yana Kuchirko, Brooklyn College CUNY
  Non-Presenting Author

• May Ling Halim, California State University - Long Beach
  Non-Presenting Author

• Philip Costanzo, Duke University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Carol Lynn Martin, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Diane N Ruble, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author