Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate young children's play preferences through observation at their classrooms and to examine the relationship between children's play preferences and their peer competence and peer acceptance. The subjects were 55 four-year-old children from a kindergarten in C city of Chungnam province. The data was analyzed by MANOVA, t-test, and Pearson's correlation. The results were as follows: first, boys and girls showed different play preferences except for language play and science play. Boys were better liked by same-sex peers while girls were better liked by other-sex peers. Second, there were significant correlations among certain play preferences. Block play preferences were negatively correlated with other play preferences. Third, some play preferences were significantly associated with some sub-dimensions of peer competence. Language play displayed a positive relationship to pro-social behavior, but art play showed a negative relationship to leadership. Finally, peer acceptance was positively correlated only with number/manipulation play preferences. Other-sex peer acceptance was positively correlated with number/manipulation play preferences and art play preferences but negatively with block play preferences.

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