Master’s Thesis Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology The Role of affiliation in sharing behaviors between toddlers

Abstract

The developmental origins of sharing behaviors between young preschoolers remain little understood. The present study aimed to examine whether contextual factors (affiliation and reciprocity) affect sharing behaviors between peers. Twenty Dutch children (13 girls, Mage = 34.45 months) were randomly assigned to participate either in interactive or parallel play sessions with a partner and were then asked to share toys with that partner in a subsequent session. The type of play children were engaged in, or whether the partner had previously shared with the child, was unrelated to the likelihood or willingness to share. Age and gender differences in sharing behavior, were not found. These results indicate that affiliation and reciprocity do not induce prosocial behaviors in young children. Possible implications of small sample size are discussed.