Collaborative Competence during preschooler's Peer Interactions: Considering Multiple Levels of Context within...

The present study introduced an interaction based, contextually contingent method for the study of social competence among preschoolers from low income families of color. Contrary to prevailing methods that assess social competence among individual children, this study used the interacting group as the unit of analysis. The constructs of intersubjectivity and collaborative complexity were adapted for an observational measure of 277 naturally occurring episodes of children's free play. The results of a multi-level analysis demonstrated a significant impact of the flexibility of the play environment and the characteristics of the peer group on the social complexity of children's peer interactions during play. To explain the study's findings a theory of how children's collaborative competence emerges according to the features of the physical and social context is proposed. More specifically, there is a bi-directional relationship between the flexibility of space and materials in the immediate play environment and children's focus on either interpersonal dynamics or collective goals of shared activity during peer play interactions. Implications for both empirical study and theorization of children's collaborative competence is discussed. More specifically, the need for measures that consider the interactive nature of social development, include non-verbal indicators of collaborative competence and consider environmental influences on children's peer interactions is highlighted. Including consideration of collaborative competence as framed by shared activity and collective goals during peer interactions in an understanding of social competence, rather than an exclusive focus on individual development of social skills is proposed.