An Observational Study of the Assimilation of the Newcomer to the Preschool.

FELDBAUM, CRAIG L.; CmuSTENSON, TERRY E.; and O'NEAL, EDGAR C. An Observational Study of the Assimilation of the Newcomer to the Preschool. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1980, 51, 497507. This study sought to distinguish between the behaviors of children entering relatively stable preschool groups (6 males, 6 females) and those of their host classmates, and to trace a particularly visible aspect of assimilation into the group: the process by which new children come to approximate host frequencies of interaction and social participation. A sequential timesampling procedure was employed to obtain behavioral data on both newcomers and host children in free play during the newcomer's first 4 weeks in the class. During their initial week, newcomers exhibited significantly higher levels of spatial isolation and off-task behaviors, and even when on task their activities were seldom synchronous with those of their classmates. Their host classmates engaged in more parallel play, verbalizing to peers, and cooperative play (activities generally requiring proximity, communication, mutual goal orientation, division of labor, and synchronization with the activities of other children). Reliable newcomer sex differences in teacher orientation were evident at entry: new females displayed higher levels than their male counterparts, who were low relative to both female newcomers and host children of both sexes. Male newcomers appeared selectively responsive to their same-sex peers. These differences in orientation are discussed as a possible factor in the differential rate of behavioral assimilation: by week 4, male newcomers had essentially approximated host levels of interaction, whereas female newcomers remained spatially isolated, objectoriented, and engaged in high levels of on-task behaviors which were not synchronous with the activities of their peers.