An Observational Study of Gender Differences in Social Skills of Preschool Children

Abstract

Social skills form one of the major life skills. Social experiences with peers constitute an important developmental context for children. In these contexts, children acquire a wide range of behaviours, skills, attitudes and experiences that influence their adaptations during the life span. An observational study was carried out to study the gender differences in the social skills of preschool children of 3 – 8 years, during their interactions with peers in various play settings such as outdoor play, block play, pretend play and snack time as well as in interage summer group camps. 72 video clippings of 10 minutes each were purposively collected to form the sample which was equally distributed among the 5 age groups. Observer Behaviour Software X.T. 7.0 was used to code and observe the various behaviours of children which were categorized under conversations, body language, gender related behaviours, and for acceptance, rejection, and resistance strategies and unsociable actions. The results revealed that the social behaviours of girls were very high in frequency and duration as compared to that of boys during pretend play. Boys used humour to gain attention, as an important acceptance strategy whereas girls used sharing and playing together as a team. Unsociable behaviours, such as self centered speech were more frequent and for longer duration among boys. Girls used dominations and arguments. Boys used aggressive body language more frequently whereas girls used rejections more often. Girls were found to be more flexible in the use of gender related behaviours whereas boys were more sex stereotypic. Girls usually picked up adult roles and pretended daily events more whereas boys picked up fantasized roles. Both boys and girls used acceptance strategies more frequently with same gender peers, used indirect rejection strategies more frequently with same gender peers and physical resistance and unsociable actions frequently with opposite gender peers.