Browsing by Author "Haw, Philippa Megan"
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- ItemBest friend nominations and peer status amongst preschoolers: a South African study(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Haw, Philippa Megan; Loxton, H. S.; Swart, Hermann; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Psychology.ENGLISH SUMMARY: Friendships are important to preschoolers’ mental, emotional and physical well-being, and contribute to their social and cognitive development (Denham & Brown, 2010; Gifford-Smith & Brownell, 2003; Halle & Darling-Churchill, 2016; Louw & Louw, 2014). Despite this, studies on friendships amongst preschoolers in South Africa are scarce. Moreover, South African studies regarding best friendships amongst preschoolers are largely non-existent. In light of the importance of friendship to development, and to address the gap in literature, this study aims to provide a better understanding of best friendships amongst preschoolers within a South African context. The study explored two research questions based on archival data obtained by means of semi structured interviews with 58 preschoolers, 34 girls and 24 boys (aged 4 to 6 years), who comprised two class groups, namely Pre-Grade R (N = 32) and Grade R (N = 26). Content analysis was used to analyse the archival data. The first research question looked at which factors influenced preschoolers’ nominations as a best friend. Five best friend nomination themes were found in light of this, namely Personal characteristics and psychological attributes (37.44%); Play and shared activities (32.51%); Geographical associations (11.33%); Similarity amongst preschoolers (11.33%), and General fondness (7.39%). Of the 14 best friend nomination sub-themes identified, the most prominent was Socially positive traits and behaviour (27.09%). Significant differences in the frequency of responses for the themes and sub-themes according to gender and class group were also addressed. While there were no differences between the class groups, significant differences were found for gender, particularly for the Geographical associations (p = .003) theme and Propinquity (p = .001) sub-theme, where boys nominated peers as best friends according to these significantly more than girls, and for the Socially positive traits and behaviour (p = .003) sub-theme, where girls nominated peers as best friends according to this sub-theme significantly more than boys. The second research question asked whether there were any distinguishing characteristics between preschoolers who received more peer nominations (high peer status preschoolers) and those who received fewer peer nominations (low peer status preschoolers). No significant differences between the peer status groups were found in terms of the frequency of responses for the themes. There was, however, a significant difference in the frequency of responses for the sub-theme General play (p = .041) where low peer status preschoolers were nominated as best friends according to General play significantly more than high peer status preschoolers. Notable differences in the content of the best friend nomination sub-theme Socially positive traits and behaviour were found between the peer status groups. High peer status preschoolers were found to display a wider repertoire of prosocial traits and behaviour than low peer status preschoolers. This study therefore provides a better understanding of best friendships and peer status amongst preschoolers within the South African context.