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Teacher Sensitivity, Children's Attachment and Playwith PeersCarollee HowesPublished online: 08 Jun 2010.

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Early Education and Development January 1997, Volume 8. Number 1

Teacher Sensitivity, Children's Attachment and Play with Peers

Carollee Howes

University of Cali-fornia, Los Angeles

Three different explanatory models for the development of complex play with peers were examined in a sample of 107 children enrolled in child care. Children's attachment security, caregiver sensitivity, and complex peer play were observed on two different occasions separated by at least six months. With more time in child care, children's play with peers became more complex. Path analysis suggested that adult caregiving behaviors indirectly influence the complexity of peer play and directly influence children's attachment security. Children's attachment security directly influenced the complexity of peer play.

Teacher Sensitivity, Children's Attachment and Play with Peers

Introduction

Early childhood programs provide a matrix of social relationships for their partici- pants-caregivers and children. Within each program, children have the task of simulta- neously constructing relationships with their caregivers and with their peers. There is con- siderable theoretical and practical disagreement about whether these tasks are linked or separate. Some argue that simply by providing multiple opportunities for children to en- gage with peers, children will become adept and competent in their interactions with peers. Support for this point of view comes from literature which links time in child care to social competence with peers (Howes, 1988). Others suggest that without positive adult guidance peer interaction will be chaotic and children with lengthy exposure to peers will only be- come aggressive and maladaptive in their interactions. Support for this position is found in

This research was, in part, supported by grants from the Carnegie Corporation and the Smith Richardson Foundation. Requests for reprints may be addressed to Carollee Howes, Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, 1029C Moore Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095- 1521.

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42 Howes

a recent longitudinal study that links increased aggression and maladaptive relations with peers to child care attendance in communities with poor child care regulation (Bates, Marvinney, Dodge, Bennett, & Pettit, 1994). The goal of this paper is to examine contrast- ing pathways among adult-child interaction, adult-child relationships and social compe- tence with peers.

Three different pathways will be examined. The most simple path suggests that peer social competence will simply increase with time with peers. This path comes from a social constructive tradition. Children construct peer relationships within peer groups rather than generalizing from adult-child relationships (Hay, 1985; Howes, 1987,1988; Rubin, LeMare, & Lollis, 1990). According to the social construction tradition, relationships with adult caregivers provide children with an orientation to peers, but competent interactions and play sequences with peers develop through repeated experiences with peers. Empirical work supports this assumption in that toddler and preschool children with more time in peer groups are more socially competent with peers (Harper & Huie, 1987; Howes, 1988). In contrast, children who consistently withdraw from the peer group as preschool and young school age children fail to construct social skills and are likely to be rejected as older chil- dren (Rubin & Mills, 1988; Rubin et al., 1990; 1993). Children whose orientation to the peer group is initially hostile may develop structurally complex patterns of interaction with peers but the content of the interactionmay be aversive to others and lead to rejection (Ladd & Price, 1993; Rubin et al., 1990). Therefore, children initially more competent in peer interaction are expected to become increasingly competent with time in a peer group.

Two other pathways suggest that early interaction and relationships with adults pro- vide the context for the development of competent peer interaction. Socialization theorists (Parke & Ladd, 1992) suggest a direct pathway. Children who develop positive interactive styles with adults will then successhlly use these interactive styles with peer partners. Therefore, children with more positive experiences with adults will be more competent with peers.

Attachment theorists (Bowlby, 1980) suggest an indirect pathway, arguing that chil- dren who develop positive representations of adult attachment relationship will expect to have positive interactions and relationships with others and will act in ways that encourage these relationships to develop. Therefore, positive interaction is expected to lead to more secure attachments which in turn lead to more competent peer interaction.

We tested these pathways in a longitudinal study of children in community child care programs. At two different time periods we measured adult sensitivity to the children, children's attachment security with their primary caregiver and children's social compe- tence with peers. Adult sensitivity was selected as our measure of adult interaction because in several studies it has been linked both to children's emotional security (Howes & Hamilton, 1992) and to children's positive peer interaction (Whitebook, Howes, & Phillips, 1990). There are a number ofprevious studies that have found associations between social compe- tence with peers and attachment security with caregivers for children in child care. Chil- dren rated as secure with caregivers also were observed as more competent with peers in concurrent (Howes, Phillips, & Whitebook, 1990) and longitudinal studies (Howes, Hamilton, & Matheson, 1994; Howes, Matheson, & Hamilton, 1994). It is not clear from the current research whether social competence with peers is enhanced by the secure base

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Sensitiviv, Attachment, & Peers 43

of a positive teacher-child attachment or whether positive teacher-child interaction pro- motes both secure attachments and positive peer relations within the classroom. By exam- ining all three components-attachment security, teacher sensitivity and peer relations- we expect to address this question.

Method

Sample

One hundred and seven children and their primary caregivers in child care participated in this research. Seventy-one children (48 girls) were enrolled in licensed family care and 36 (18 girls) in a child care center. Sixty-six percent of the children were European-Ameri- can, 15% African-American, 8% Latino, 5% Asian-American and the remaining children from mixed backgrounds. At the beginning of the study, children ranged in age from 10 to 60 months (mean age 25.9 months). There was only one caregiver in each family child care home, therefore the primary caregiver was the child's only caregiver. The primary caregiver for the children in the center was defmed as the lead caregiver in each room.

The children in family child care experienced mixed age groups ranging in size from 4 to 8 children. The children in center care experienced age-graded individual homerooms staffed with a primary teacher and one or more assistants. Children under one year of age were cared for in groups of ten children. The average observed adu1t:child ratio was 3.5 in the infant (under one year of age) rooms, 4.6 in the toddler rooms, and 5.5 in the preschool rooms.

Procedures and Measures

The design of the study was to conduct the first observation after each child had been enrolled in the child care setting for at least two months and no more than six months. The second observations were conducted at least six and no more than twelve months following the first observations. Since 30 of the children in center care (28% of the total children) changed primary caregivers (moved up to the next age group) we waited until the child had spent two months with the new caregiver before completing the second set of observations.

Identical procedures and measures were used pre- and post-intervention in each child care setting. Each child was observed in his or her child care setting for at least two hours spaced across one or two days. During the observation, the observer took descriptive notes and collected a total of four five-minute behavioral observations using the Peer Play scale. The behavioral observations were evenly distributed across the entire classroom visit. Each five-minute behavioral observation consisted of 15 20-second intervals. During each inter- val, preselected behaviors were coded as present or absent. During this period the observer coded four five-minute time samples of the social behavior of the child. The time samples were spaced evenly throughout the observation period. Each five-minute time sample was broken into 15 20-second intervals. Within each 20-second interval, the child's proximity to the adult was coded. The child was considered to be in proximity ifhe or she was within three feet of the adult. If the child was in proximity, the adult-child interaction was rated. At the conclusion of the observation visit, the observers completed the attachment Q-Sort and the Arnett scale of caregiver sensitivity.

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44 Howes

In the child care center, the attachment Q-Set and the behavioral observations of each child were collected by different observers. In the smaller family child care homes, two observers were considered disruptive by the providers so one observer collected all the data on the child. In most cases, the same observer did not collect both the pre-and post-inter- vention information on a child.

Attachment Q-Set

The Attachment Q-Set (AQS) was completed on the relationship between the child and the child's primary teacher. observations lasted a minimum of two hours (M= 2.5 hours, range 2 - 5 hours). If the observer was unable to complete the AQS because the two-hour time frame did not permit seeing sufficient attachment behaviors the observer continued to observe either on that morning or on a subsequent day. ' AQS observations began after the target child's parent had departed and finshed before nap time. The observer watched as the child and caregiver pursued normal activities in the child care setting. Following the observation, the observer completed the 90-item AQS (Waters, 1990). If an item was not seen it was placed in the middle pile. For no item was the modal score 5, which would have indicated that the item was usually placed in the middle pile.

To obtain security scores the raw scores from the AQS were correlated with the crite- rion scores provided for security by Waters (1990). The correlation coefficients are the children's security scores. Security scores can vary from -1.0 to 1.0. A higher score indi- cates greater security.

Observers were trained to an 85 percent exact agreement criterion on each item prior to data collection. Inter-observer reliability checks were conducted throughout data collec- tion. Median inter-observer reliability was Kappa = .84 (range Kappa = .79 to .93).

Peer Play

We used the Revised Peer Play Scale (Howes & Matheson, 1992) to measure the com- plexity of peer play. The scale has eight scale points. The fust four scale points measure solitary play and low level peer play: onlooker behavior, proximity to peer without interac- tion and parallel play when the target child and a peer are within three feet of each other and engage in the same activity but do not acknowledge each other. The other scale points capture interactive peer play: parallel play with eye contact; simple social play; comple- mentary and reciprocal play; and two levels of pretend play-cooperative social pretend (the target child and another child enacting complementary roles) and complex social pre- tend (the target child and another child enacting complementary roles) and complex social pretend play (the target child an a peer demonstrating both social pretend play and meta- communication about the play). Complementary-reciprocal social play, cooperative pre- tend play and complex pretend play are considered competent forms of play with peers (Howes & Matheson, 1992). The peer play scale points were mutually exclusive and the highest possible observed scale point was recorded in each interval.

From the coded peer play we created a measure of the proportion of the interactive play that was competent play. Kappa reliabilities averaged .93 (range = .86 to .95).

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Sensitivity, Attachment, & Peers 45

Caregiver Sensitivity

The Arnett rating scale for caregiver sensitivity (Amett, 1989) was used to ;ate each primary teacher. This rating scale consists of 26 items rated on a four-point scale. Three subscales were derived from this measure: sensitivity (e.g., encourages the child to try new experiences); harshness (e.g., seems unnecessarily harsh when scolding or prohibiting chil- dren); and detachment (e.g., spends considerable time in activity not involving interaction with the children). Kapa reliabilities averaged .95 (range = .89 to .98). For the purposes of this analysis we used only sensitivity scores.

Results

Changes in Children's Attachment Security, Peer Play and Caregiver's Sensitivity

Descriptive statistics associated with attachment security, peer play and caregiver sen- sitivity at observation times one and two are in Table 1. As the age range of the children was fairly wide and as the time between the two observations was not standardized, we controlled age at times one and times two in all analyses. We compared behaviors at the two times with a repeated measure Analysis of Variance with child care form as a grouping variable using age at time one and at time two as covariates. The F values associated with change over time are in.Table 1. Children became more secure and engaged in more com- plex peer play with more time in child care. The children's caregivers also became more sensitive over time. Note, that while we were comparing children the actual caregiver also changed in 28% of the caregivers. There was a main effect for child care setting for peer play (F (1,90) = 4.53, p = .04). Children in center care engaged in more complex play in center care. There were no main effects for care arrangement for security or sensitivity and there were no significant interactions.

Table I. Changes in Children's Attachment Security, Peer Play, and Caregiver Sensitivity

BEHAVIOR

ATTACHMENT SECURITY

Family

Center

PEER PLAY

Family

Center

SENSITIVE CAREGIVING

Family

Center

TIME ONE

MEAN S. D.

.30 .26

.34 .2a

.24 .21

.05 . I O

.02 .06

.09 . I3

2.85 .5a

2.95 -62

2.67 .44

TIME TWO

MEAN S.D.

.39 .21

.40 .22

.36 .21

. I5 .22

.06 . I 1

.33 -26

2.93 .56

3.03 .61

2.86 .4a

F TEST FOR

CHANGE

6.27**

26.44***

4.a7*7

~ ~~

** p .01; *** p .001

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46 Howes

PEER PLAY

Relations among Security, Caregiving Behaviors and Peer Play

We then examined relations among child and caregiver behaviors over the two time periods. Partial correlations with age at times one and two controlled are presented in Table 2. Children engaged in more complex play when they were concurrently more secure with caregivers and were more secure with caregivers when caregivers concurrently engaged in more sensitive caregiving. There were low associations between caregiving behaviors at time one and child behaviors at time two. Patterns of relations among variables were simi- lar in center and family care.

Table 2. Relations Among Security, Caregiving Behaviors and Peer Play

SECURE SENSITIVE

TIME 1 TIME 2 TIME I TIME 2

I .25**

I .14 .36**

PEER PLAY

Time 1

Time 2

SECURE

Time 1

Time 2 ~ .06

. I6

.06 .I2

.32** .I5

.01 .35**

Prediction of Complex Play with Peers

The final step in the analysis was to compare two models of caregiver influences on peer play complexity over time. One mode, the direct effects model, predicts links between sensitivity and peer play unmediated by the child’s emotional security in the caregiver-child relationship. The other model, the indirect effects model, focuses on the effects of sensitiv- ity on the caregiver-child relationship which then influences child outcomes. The indirect and direct models are tested both within each year and from year one to year two (Figure 1).

A series of multiple regression analyses were performed in which both sensitivity scores and security scores were used to predict proportion of complex peer interaction. In each regression age at time one was entered first.

The resulting path models excluding age are presented in Figure 1, with standardized regression coefficients representing the unique contribution of each predictor variable. The path models are quite similar for each year. They indicate that security had a moderate influence on complexity of peer play ( ps = .32 and .34, both p < .01). Sensitivity had a weak direct influence on complexity of peer play ( Ps = -.06 and -.19, bothps ns). How- ever, sensitivity had a moderate direct influence on security ( ps = .32 and .34, both p < .01). First year scores had weak influences on second year scores (all Ps ns). A final predictive model for second year peer complexity is presented in Table 3. Examination of Beta and partial correlations suggests that age and second year attachment security are

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Sensitivity, Attachment, h Peers 47

the best predictors of peer play complexity in the second year. We re-computed the regres- sion equations using just the 82 children who did not change caregivers between times one and two. The pattern of results was identical.

Figure 1. Prediction of complex play with peers.

p = -.OE

- TIME1 TIME 2 Sensitive -> Sensitive caregiving p = .19 caregiving ID=\ I =.34**

p = -.I9 Security I \ ; s e r

p =.01

p = .35** p = .31**

+ Peer Play -> Peer Play

R = 59"; R-' = .35 ** p .01

Table 3. Final Multiple Regression Predicting Complex Peer Play at Time Two

PREDICTORVARIABLES 1 Final p 1 SP I t

AGE

SENSITIVITY TIME ONE

SENSITIVITY TIME TWO

SECURITY TIME ONE

SECURITY TIME TWO

PEER PLAY COMPLEXITY TIME ONE

5 4

-.04

-.I6

-.07

.30

-.01

.47

-.04

-.I 8 -.08

.36

-.01

5.11**

-.37

1.77

-.80

2.48*

-.I3

* p < .05; ** p < .01

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Discussion

With more time with their peers, children in h s study spent more of their time in complex peer play, once the influences of age were removed. This finding lends support to the social constructivist hypothesis that with repeated experiences with peers children con- struct more complex ways of interacting. The child care context is particularly suited to these developmental activities because toys and other materials must be shared. If two children both wish to play in the doll comer and only one can be the mother, then they must engage in fairly sophisticated negotiations to play social pretend. Likewise, two chlldren in the block area who are building a bus station must decide together how to do this. Even with reasonable adult-chdd ratios, as found in this sample, children in child care most often must negotiate their peer interaction without adult assistance either by teacher design or by teacher preoccupation with other children.

The results of our analysis also suggest that adult caregivers do influence children's peer play, but indirectly rather than directly. The findings of the study suggest a direct link between attachment security a d socially competent behaviors with peers and an indirect link between caregiver sensitivity and behavior with peers. This finding helps explain the somewhat puzzling findings of negative correlations between frequency of adult involve- ment in child care and peer socially competent behaviors with peers (e.g., Kontos et al., 1994). It seems reasonable that optimal behavior in child care includes satisfying social encounters with both adult caregivers and peers. The child who spends most of his or her time in child care playing or otherwise involved with the adult caregivers may not have time to construct complex interactions with peers. It appears that child who feels emotion- ally secure with the adult caregiver may not spend much time in intense interaction with her, but instead, use her as a secure base to explore and develop relations with peers.

These results do not suggest that caregivers should adopt a laissez-faire approach to peer relations. Too often caregivers reason that if the children are "happily playing to- gether" they can stop paying attention. The children in our study were not ignored by adults. They spent an average of half of the observation within three feet of their adult caregivers and one-quarter of the observation period in responsive interaction with adults. We suspect that the same caregivers whose sensitive responsivity to the children in their care contribute to the construction of secure attachment relationships are the caregivers who monitor and indirectly enhance children's attempts to construct complex peer interac- tion. If caregivers are watching peer interaction rather than intruding upon it or imposing an adult structure to the play they are better able to provide appropriate props or a low key suggestion that will enhance rather than interfere with the construction of complex peer Play.

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Sensitivity, Attachment, & Peers 49

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