Early Childhood Education Journal. Vol. 27, No. 4, 2000

Peer Acceptance and Social Adjustment in Preschool andKindergarten

Christine Johnson1,2, Marsha Ironsmith3, Charles W. Snow1, and G. Michael Poteat1

Research on the relation between social behavior and peer acceptance in preschool children and thelong-term consequences of peer acceptance or rejection is reviewed. Preschool children who exhib-it aggressive behavior tend to be rejected by peers at an early age and these first impressions have alasting effect on peer acceptance, in spite of subsequent changes in the child's behavior. Socialbehaviors that are related to peer popularity vary by age and sex. Children who experience high lev-els of peer acceptance in preschool and who have friends entering kindergarten with them make abetter adjustment to school. Recommendations for fostering social development in preschoolers arediscussed.

KEY WORDS: preschool children; peer relations; sociometric status; adjustment to kindergarten.

INTRODUCTION

We began studying the development of social rela-tions in preschool children in 1983. We chose this area ofresearch because we knew that peer relationships inchildhood were a major predictor of psychologicaladjustment in adulthood. Children who are rejected bytheir peers are more likely to become delinquents, todrop out of school, to get dishonorable discharges fromthe military, or to have psychological problems later inlife (Parker & Asher 1987; Roff, Sells, & Golden, 1972).However, most early studies of peer relations involvedchildren in elementary school or high school. We wantedto study socialization in the preschool, when children arelearning social skills and forming their first friendships.What we know now, 15 years later, is that peer relation-ships in preschool are just as important as friendshipsamong older children. Preschool seems to be a criticalperiod for children's social development and one thatteachers and parents cannot afford to ignore.

1East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina.2Now at the Murdoch Center Community Services, Butner, NorthCarolina.

3Correspondence should be directed to Marsha Ironsmith, Departmentof Psychology, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina27858, e-mail: ironsmithe@mail.ecu.edu

In 1983, we began our research program by study-ing a group of 3-year-old children. We observed theirsocial interactions with children and adults, their solitaryplay as well as prosocial and aggressive behaviors. Wecontinued to observe these children the following year atage 4 and also interviewed them about their friendships.At the end of kindergarten, we asked their teachers to fillout a behavioral questionnaire about each child. Morerecently, our research efforts have focused on 3- and 4-year-old children in a University Child Development LabSchool. We replicated our earlier study by observingthree cohorts of children as they moved from the 3-year-old class to the 4-year-old class between 1993 and 1997.

HOW DO WE ASSESS PEERRELATIONSHIPS?

We used a sociometric interview to assess a chil-dren's peer relationships. Children were shown picturesof other children in their class and asked to rate howmuch they liked to play with each classmate on a three-point scale (Asher, Singleton, Tinseley, & Hymel, 1979).Children pointed to a smiling face if they "like to playwith (Tommy) a lot," a frowning face if they "don't liketo play with (Tommy) at all," or a neutral face if "some-times I like to play with (Tommy) sometimes and some-times I don't." Four-year-old children could do this accu-

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rately and reliably. Three-year-olds could rate their class-mates, too, but their ratings were less consistent from onetime to the next. Three-year-olds did not use the neutralrating often: They tended to either like or dislike a class-mate. Four-year-olds gave more positive ratings andtended to use the neutral rather than the negative rating(Ironsmith, Poteat, Snow, Hetman, & Durham, 1997).These interviews were used to assess a child's socialacceptance. Coie, Dodge, and Coppotelli (1982) devel-oped ways to identify children as popular, average,rejected (children who are actively disliked by class-mates) or neglected (children who are neither liked nordisliked). The popular and rejected children have beenstudied the most. Rejected children are at risk for theproblems described above. By looking at the behavior ofpopular children, we hoped to find out what skills a childneeds to be accepted by his or her peers.

WHO IS LIKED AND WHO ISDISLIKED?

Elementary school children who behave aggressive-ly are more likely to be socially rejected by other chil-dren (Ladd, Price, & Hart, 1988). This is also true forpreschoolers (Denham & Holt 1993; Ironsmith & Poteat,1990). When children in our studies said they did not liketo play with a classmate, they often mentioned aggres-sive behavior as the reason (e.g., "He hit me."). This wasespecially true for 3-year-olds. In fact, aggression wasthe only behavior that was related to peer acceptance atthat age. Three-year-olds seem to have a simple view offriendship—they either like or dislike a classmate andthe main basis for their judgment seems to be aggression.Although boys displayed more aggressive behavior thangirls did, aggression was an even better predictor ofsocial rejection for girls than for boys. Boys who showeda lot of solitary play were less popular whereas girls whoplayed by themselves were well liked. Apparently soli-tary play is more acceptable for girls than boys butaggression is not acceptable behavior for girls (Curto,1996).

Among 4-year-old children, aggressive behavior ismore of a problem for children who do not interact muchwith peers and who show fewer positive, prosocialbehaviors that might offset the aggression. Four-year-oldchildren's perception of peers seems more complex thanthat of 3-year-olds. They base their social preferences onmore than just aggression. If a child is somewhat aggres-sive but also is socially active and shows some prosocialskills, he or she is not necessarily rejected by peers(Curto, 1996). Teachers, however, are more likely to rateaggressive children as having behavior problems (Curto,

Johnson, Ironsmith, Snow, and Poteat

1996; Ladd & Price, 1987).Popular elementary school children are above aver-

age in sociability and cognitive skills and are below aver-age in aggression and withdrawn behavior (Newcomb.Bukowski, & Pattee, 1993). These behaviors are alsorelated to popularity in preschoolers (Denham & Holt,1993; Ironsmith & Poteat, 1990; Ironsmith et al. 1997).Preschool children who seek more positive interactionswith their classmates tend to become better liked by theirpeers and rated as more sociable by their kindergartenteachers (Ironsmith & Poteat, 1990). Overall, preschool-ers seem to have a fairly sound basis for choosing play-mates based on their behavior.

However, once a child has acquired a reputation, itis difficult to change that reputation, even if the child'sbehavior changes. Children gain a reputation early andthat reputation sticks. The peer status of elementaryschool aged children is very stable, especially for reject-ed children (Blythe, 1983; Coie & Dodge, 1983) and thisis also true for preschoolers. Denham and Holt (1993)found that children's social behavior in their first year ofpreschool predicted how well liked they were. However,their popularity during the second year was more highlyrelated to their sociometric ratings the first year than totheir behavior during the second year. In other words,children formed an opinion of their peers based on howthey behaved the first year and that first impressionstayed with them.

Note that our studies were conducted in settingswith single age groupings. The children remained withthe same class when moving from one class level toanother and had a different set of teachers during the sec-ond year. There is some evidence that practices such asmixed-age grouping and "looping," whereby teachersmove with students to the next grade level for 2 or moreyears, enhance social development. Apparently loopingprovides increased opportunities for bonding betweenteachers and students and for shy children to developself-confidence (Burke, 1996). The practice of mixed-age grouping has been found to contribute to positivesocial behavior and relationships between children andreduce the amount of aggression, bullying, and otherantisocial behavior in groups of children (McClellan,1997; McClellan & Kinsey, 1996). Our studies neithersupport nor contradict the practices of looping andmixed-age grouping. If such practices are followedteachers should be aware of each individual child's statuswithin the group. Individual needs must be carefullymonitored to avoid continuation of bad matches betweena teacher and a child or between a child and the group(McClellan, 1995, 1997).

Denham and Holt's (1993) results are similar to

Peer Acceptance and Social Adjustment

those found recently by one of our master's thesis stu-dents. Gina Leggett looked at those children in our studywho were continuously enrolled in the preschool pro-gram for 2 years. She found that the ratings children gaveeach other in April at age 3 were similar to those giventhe next January when the children were 4 years old,even though the two ratings were about 9 months apart.She also found that aggression at age 3 was stronglyrelated to a child's peer status at age 4 even thoughaggression at age 4 was not. Thus, even though theymight learn more acceptable social behavior by the ageof 4, children who establish a reputation for beingaggressive at age 3 are still less accepted by their peers ayear later. The same was true for teachers' ratings ofbehavior problems. Thus, early behavior problems canhave a long-term influence on the perceptions of bothpeers and teachers.

Therefore, it is important for teachers and parents tohelp very young children develop positive social skillsand friendships as these may have a strong impact onpeer acceptance. Parents may not see preschool childreninteracting with peers as often as teachers do and maydismiss teachers' concerns about the child's social skillsas "just a phase" the child is going through. The childmay well outgrow the problem behaviors, but maybe notsoon enough to be able to establish more positive peerrelationships.

WHAT ARE THE LONG-TERMEFFECTS OF PEER RELATIONSHIPS INPRESCHOOL?

Children with good social skills who have morefriends in preschool make a better transition into kinder-garten. Cooperative and sociable preschool children arebetter liked in kindergarten. Children who are aggressivein preschool tend to be socially rejected in kindergarten(Ladd & Price, 1987). Additionally, children who arewell accepted by their peers in preschool are rated bytheir kindergarten teachers as being more socially com-petent (Ironsmith & Poteat, 1990). Children's socialbehavior and peer relationships in preschool have a last-ing effect on their social development as they enter gradeschool.

Social competence and continuity of peer relations,as well as the degree of support that a child receives fromteachers, parents and especially classmates, are allimportant influences on the child's success in school.Establishing close ties with classmates can providekindergartners with a sense of security they need forexploring and coping with new surroundings. Ladd(1990) found that children who were more accepted in

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preschool and who had more familiar peers with themwhen they entered kindergarten were less anxious at thebeginning of the year and liked school better as the yearprogressed. Familiarity and support from prior friend-ships can make new environments seem less strange andoverwhelming. Two essential school supplies thatkindergartners need to bring with them on the first dayare previous friends who are entering kindergarten withthem and strong social skills that assist the child in form-ing new friendships.

HOW CAN EARLY CHILDHOODEDUCATORS FACILITATE PEERFRIENDSHIPS?

Preschool teachers sometimes find that parents pushfor academic readiness skills to be taught to their chil-dren at the preschool level. Our research suggests that itmay be more important for preschool teachers to spendtime encouraging the development of social skills.Finding ways to facilitate and encourage positive socialbehaviors can help the preschooler make a successfultransition into kindergarten. Activities and supportsaimed at improving prosocial skills and friendships aregood ways to assist a child having difficulties with socialadjustment. Providing a child with the necessary assis-tance at the preschool level, rather than assuming theywill grow out of behavior problems, can give the child abetter opportunity to establish new friendships and posi-tive reputations as they progress through school. Finally,parents and teachers can help the children form the socialnetwork which can support the children in their adjust-ment to school.

Preschool is a developmentally appropriate time forchildren to learn the social skills necessary for latersocial adjustment. Some of the early social skills taughtto preschool children include turn-taking, sharing, help-ing, staying with one's group, listening, verbal expres-sion of feelings, establishing self-control, and controllingaggressive tendencies. These competencies can be taughtby creating activities that help children to identify thevarious social skills (i.e., giving the skill a name) and tounderstand why the skill is needed. Teachers also need todemonstrate the skill through modeling or role-playingand allow opportunities for the children to practice andreceive feedback.

COOPERATIVE LEARNING GROUPSSetting up cooperative learning groups is one

method for fostering social skill development. The stu-dents can be assigned to a core group that they will meetwith for an extended period. These groups provide a

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forum for practicing social skills and for developingfriendships. Core groups should be as diverse as possi-ble, mixing ability level, sexes, ethnic and cultural back-grounds. Additionally, teaching children how to establishand maintain friendships and allowing them to practicenewly acquired social skills with a small, comfortablepeer group can be far less overwhelming than the largerclassroom environment. Core groups can be used forbasic activities as taking attendance or collecting permis-sion slips for field trips, or for more complex activities assharing time, group projects, or eating lunch. The moreinteresting the chosen activities, the more motivated chil-dren will be to work together. When each child in thegroup is accountable for contributing to the final product,this helps children learn to work together. Clear criteriafor successful completion, especially with student inputin deciding how the final outcome will be achieved, willhelp create a sense of accomplishment and unity withinthe group. These groups also provide chances for thechildren to learn to share ideas and materials and to lis-ten to what their peers have to offer (Putnam, 1993).

INCLUDING CHILDREN WITHSPECIAL NEEDS

Rewarding and encouraging social interactions withpeers within free play situations can be helpful in pro-moting peer acceptance and likability. Group-orientedactivities should be designed with enough roles foreveryone (e.g., pretend play activities or organizedgames) so that each child has enough opportunities forpeer interaction. Facilitating social interactions and mod-ifying activities to ensure that everyone can participate isespecially helpful for children with special needs.Teachers need to be aware of and creative in includingchildren with various levels of ability. Inclusion in groupactivities can assist in facilitating better social accep-tance and also improve individual social skills for chil-dren with special needs and varying ability levels. Manyof these ideas were obtained from and are elaborated onin Putnam (1993). Her book, Cooperative Learning andStrategies for Inclusion, is a valuable reference forpreschool and elementary school teachers interested inusing collaborative learning to promote social develop-ment and tolerance.

REINFORCING PROSOCIALBEHAVIORS

Teachers also need to provide positive reinforce-ment for interactions with peers, particularly with praiseand attention (e.g., "Look how nicely everyone is playingtogether." or "WOW! You look like you are having so

Johnson, Ironsmith, Snow, and Poteat

much fun.")- Children who are withdrawn and engage ina lot of solitary play often get a lot of teacher attention.By asking the child why he or she is playing alone orattempting to join a child who is engaged in solitary play,an adult may inadvertently be reinforcing that child's iso-lation and making the child more likely to seek adultattention. Alternatively, modeling ways for children toinitiate or join in existing activities with their peers mayresult in better peer acceptance and later social adjust-ment. Children who spend too much time interactingwith adults have fewer opportunities to benefit frominteraction with peers. Face-to-face interactions amongstudents rather than student-teacher-student mediationshould be encouraged whenever possible.

HELPING CHILDREN CONTROLAGGRESSION

Negative behaviors, particularly aggression, arerelated to social rejection. Parents and teachers shouldnot assume that the child will grow out of negativebehavior patterns. The fact is that these behaviors tend topredict how well a child is accepted in subsequent years.Teachers can use verbal instruction as well as modelingand reinforcement to teach prosocial skills (e.g., askingfor a toy rather than grabbing toys from other children)and to prevent a child from becoming rejected by theirpeers. Structuring the environment to avoid commonproblem behaviors can help alleviate some problemsbefore they occur (e.g., having enough chairs for every-one, placing materials so everyone can see/reach, settingtime limits for favorite toys and activities).

When conflicts arise between children, teachersshould not try to determine who was at fault or lay blamesince this has a tendency to draw further attention to theundesirable behavior. Instead, it is better to focus on pro-viding attention and praise for positive, desirable behav-iors. Teachers should also help children find ways to gettheir needs met without resorting to aggression. Childrenwith limited verbal skills may require more intensivework on language development in order to learn to assertthemselves more appropriately.

TIME-OUT FOR ESTABLISHING SELF-CONTROL

Teachers often use time-out in dealing with aggres-sion or other undesirable behaviors. Time-out shouldinvolve the removal of all opportunity to receive rein-forcement. Teachers often make the mistake of talking to,touching, or looking at the child while he/she is in time-out. Children frequently ask if time-out is over and ifthey can go back to playing and teachers and parents

Peer Acceptance and Social Adjustment

often answer them. They may be trying to make sure thechild remains in time-out or understands what he/she didwrong. However, adult attention usually provides rein-forcement for the child. When applying strategies such astime out, it is important not to encourage the behaviorswe are attempting to discourage. Suggested strategies fortime-out include stating the inappropriate behavior forthe child and immediately placing him or her in a desig-nated location away from the rest of the children andteachers. Teachers should require the child to remain intime-out for no more than 1 minute per year of age andnever longer than 5 minutes. A timer set to signal whentime is up can help to eliminate the need to interact withthe child while he/she is in time-out. The purpose oftime-out should be to provide a child with an opportuni-ty to establish self-control. A good resource for teachersand parents on the use of time-out is Webster-Stratton's(1992) book, The Incredible Years,

PARENT INVOLVEMENT

Aggressive and antisocial behaviors of many chil-dren are likely to be related to family interaction patterns.Therefore, it is essential that teachers involve parents inattempts to help disliked children become more sociallycompetent. Information about positive guidance tech-niques can be made available in parent discussiongroups, and through newsletters and handouts.Individualized strategies for facilitating the social com-petence of specific children can be discussed inparent-teacher conferences. The research presented inthis article may help parents understand the importanceof early intervention in behavior problems if they areresistant to the teacher's suggestions.

MAINTAINING A CONSISTENTENVIRONMENT AND CONTINUITY OFRELATIONSHIPS

A consistent preschool or child care placement isrecommended because it allows the child a chance todevelop stable social relationships and practice newlyacquired social skills in a safe and familiar environment.Parents sometimes want to move a child who is havingbehavior problems because they feel that the teacher isexaggerating the problem and because they may not seethe same problems in the child's behavior at home.Parents may feel that the child's behavior may improvein a new setting and this sometimes happens. However, ifa child consistently shows aggressive and problembehaviors and poor social skills, moving the child to newsettings may not solve the problem. Working on devel-oping prosocial skills in a familiar setting may be more

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successful. Teachers can provide opportunities for stu-dents to learn from one another by establishing a "buddysystem" in which a more socially competent child ispaired with a child displaying difficulties. This may bedone by strategically sitting certain students next to oneanother or allowing pairs of students to become class-room helpers or work partners.

Because preschool peer groups are often not thesame as those in the child's kindergarten class, we rec-ommend setting up play groups with children who willbe in the same class prior to the start of the school year.This provides the child with an opportunity to get toknow their classmates without the pressures of an unfa-miliar setting. Having a new friend to turn to for supportcan help minimize some of the "scariness" of entering anew school. Opportunities to visit their new school andclassroom prior to the first day of classes, and joint activ-ities between preschool and kindergarten settings canalso help prepare preschoolers for their transition.

Five-year-old Christopher insisted on being given atour of a kindergarten class when his mother took him toregister for school. The teacher was very gracious andshowed him the class and answered all his questions.Afterward he told his mother he was so relieved to seethat they had toys in the classroom like in preschool. Hethought that the teacher would just write on the boardand the children would have to sit in their seats and writewith pencil and paper. His mother never knew where hegot these ideas about kindergarten! Children often devel-op anxieties about going to kindergarten and these can becontagious in a 4-year-old classroom. (Particularly whenthe first child comes back from the pediatrician's officeto report on the shots!)

The Lab School where we have been doing ourresearch had a unique opportunity one summer when thefacility was closed down for repairs and the childrenwere relocated to a nearby elementary school. They wereable to use the kindergarten classrooms and kindergartenteachers came to talk to the 4-year-olds who were enter-ing kindergarten in the fall. An alum of the preschoolcame to give them a guided tour of the school.

Elementary schools are under pressure to raise testscores and improve the academic performance ofAmerican children. Everyone (parents, teachers, princi-pals, State Departments of Public Instruction) needs tounderstand the role that social development plays in aca-demics. Ladd (1990) stated: "children's learning ... isenhanced when they ... undertake new tasks in the com-pany of familiar persons. By making new friends in theclassroom, children may have . . . created a more famil-iar or supportive learning environment" (p. 1096). Laddargues that school administrators should try to assign

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children to kindergarten classes so that they have famil-iar friends with whom to embark on this new adventure.This is not an elaborate or expensive intervention but onethat might prove to be quite effective.

CONCLUSIONRecent articles in the popular media promote the

importance of intellectual stimulation in the early years.Perhaps as important an influence on academic perfor-mance and social competence are early peer relation-ships. Children who have strong social skills and high-quality stable friendships enter school with high expecta-tions for success. Preschool is the ideal time for the childto develop social skills and friendships. Elementaryschools would do well to maintain and enhance thoseskills.

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Burke, D. L. (1996). Multi-age teacher/student relationships are a long-overdue arrangement. Phi Delta Kappan, 77, 360-361.

Coie, J. D., & Dodge, K. A. (1983). Continuities and changes in chil-dren's social status: A five-year longitudinal study. Merrill-PalmerQuarterly, 29, 261-282.

Coie, J. D., Dodge, K. A., & Coppotelli, H. (1982). Dimensions andtypes of social status: A cross-age perspective. DevelopmentalPsychology. 18, 557-570.

Curto, J. (1996). Sociometrics, social skills and behavioral correlateswith preschool children. Unpublished master's thesis. EastCarolina University.

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