Hostile Behaviors in Preschoolers’ Physical Play: Gender Effects

Abstract

Through physical play children enjoy and learn in a holistic manner. Preschools can provide many opportunities to enhance children's social skills, via social interaction and cooperation in physical play. Deficits in social skills can have short-term detrimental effects on children's development as well as long-term impacts later in their life. Although research has emphasized the beneficial effects of physical play on children's social competence, studies on problem behaviors of preschool children in physical play, are limited. The present study aimed at identifying hostile behaviors of preschool children during physical play and possible gender differences in this regard. It is part of a broader research which aims to evaluate the social skills of preschool children in different settings, after testing the psychometric properties of MESSY-II in Greek population. One hundred preschool children, 2.5-3.5 years of age participated. Hostile behaviors were assessed by children's teachers with MESSY-II (Matson, Neal, Worley, Kozlowski, &Fodstad, 2012). T-test for independent samples indicated that boys were rated as presenting significantly more hostile behaviors than girls during physical play. These differences should be taken into account in developing treatment as well as preventive strategies to facilitate preschool children's social development.