Social Initiation and Response Styles in Lower and Middle Class Preschool Children

Abstract

Lower SES children in Head Start and middle SES children in private preschools were compared on peer social interaction, particularly social reciprocity. Although the lower SES children had more initiations and responses (including the response of ignoring the initiation of a peer) than the middle SES children, the type of response that lower income children made to positive and negative initiations differed from the type of response that the middle SES children made. A log‐linear analysis indicated that the lower SES children made proportionately fewer positive and more negative responses to positive initiations than middle SES children. The lower SES children also had a significantly greater proportion of ignore responses to both positive and negative initiations from peers than the middle SES children. The results imply that special attention and help should be provided for lower SES preschool children in the development of social skills.