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Childhood Observation Essay

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In preschool children get lots of opportunities to play and interact with one another, and who they play with and where they like to play matters. A study was done to observe preschoolers in their social contexts such as where they like to play who they like to play with and playgroup size. The purpose for the study was to observe whether behavior in the fall was related to spring bullying and to see if bullying is different for boys and girls. Participants were preschool children gathered from eighteen head start classrooms and they were observed in three groups over three continous years. The study had a total of 255 children with 131 boys and 124 girls. “Children were observed in their classrooms and on their outdoor playgrounds. Trained observers coded childrens social and interpersonal behaviors over the fall semester of preschool.” (Andrews, Hanish, Fabes and Martin, 2014) Children were observed throughout the school day and obserevers noted if children played one on one or in groups and the gender of childrens peers was noted (Same gender, other gender, and mixed gender play groups) Lastly childrens location was noted. Observers also noted any peer bullying that was observed. The results of the study were that children spent more time playing one on one then in groups for both boys and girls.

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