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Exploring an Age Difference in Preschool Children's Competitiveness Following a Competition

Yu Hu1, Yi Zhu2

  • 1Research Institute of Social Development, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China.

Frontiers in Psychology
|March 30, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Preschool children

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Social Psychology

Background:

  • Resource acquisition is linked to competition in young children.
  • The developmental trajectory of competitiveness in preschoolers remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the development of competitiveness in preschool children.
  • To examine how prior competition experience (winning, losing, or control) influences subsequent competitive choices against familiar rivals and anonymous competitors.

Main Methods:

  • 166 children (aged 2-4 and 5-6 years) participated in a dyadic competition task.
  • Participants were then observed making choices to compete again with a rival or a non-rival competitor for a reward.
  • A control group engaged in a non-competitive task for comparison.

Main Results:

  • An overall age-related decrease in the tendency to compete was observed.
  • This age difference was significant in the control group when competing with a familiar partner.
  • The effect was also significant in the losing group when competing against an anonymous non-rival competitor.

Conclusions:

  • Competitiveness in preschoolers shows developmental changes, influenced by age and prior competitive outcomes.
  • Future research should explore the roles of motivation and cognitive control in shaping children's competitive behavior.

Keywords:
cognitive controlinequality aversionrivalrystatus hierarchywillingness to compete

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