What is the relationship between observations of peer interaction and teacher reports of prosocial behaviour and problem with peers in pre-schoolers?

Abstract

While a lot of research has been done concerning peer interaction and its influence on development in preschool children, not much is known about the different ways of measuring peer interaction. This study used a clinical sample of 169 preschool children, to examine the relationship between observation measures and teacher reports of peer interaction. Results showed that observations of social behaviour, assertiveness and communication were significantly related to teacher ratings of problems with peers and prosocial behaviour of the child. Conflict was weakly, but significantly correlated with prosocial behaviour, but not related with problems with peers. Dutch language level was found to be related to assertiveness, communication and problems with peers, but it appeared not to be a moderating factor when looking at the relationships between the observation measures and the teacher reports. Future research should focus on finding other moderating factors in this relation.