DiLalla, L.F., Nielson, L., & Snover, S. (1994). Rejection and noncompliance during free play in preschoolers. Poster presented to the Conference on Human Development, April, Pittsburgh, P.A.

Insight can be gained into behaviors that may instigate negative responses from other children by studying negative (e.g., aggressive) behaviors during preschool play. Cooperative and negative behaviors displayed during peer interactions were analyzed in order to explore the types of social behaviors typical for preschoolers and to determine whether they were related to popularity or peer rejection.

Thirty 3- and 4-year-old children were videotaped during free play at their daycare. Tapes were rated for engagement behaviors (e.g., commands, requests), negative behaviors (e.g., grabbing toys, rejection), and response behaviors (e.g., complying, refusing).

Children who exhibited negative behaviors were more likely to be refused when they commanded or requested a child to do something. Also, there was a high positive correlation between number of partner compliances and number of target child commands and requests. Finally, the most popular children made more requests and were complied to more often. These behaviors may be useful for identifying an at-risk population of children who could benefit from mediation in the realm of acceptable social behaviors.