Vennskap mellom små barn i barnehagen.

The purpose of this study is to examine the aspects that characterise friendships between two to three-year-old children in kindergarten. It focuses on the child's ability to establish and maintain social relationships with other children and on early childhood friendships as the basis for developing social skills.

The study shows that children actively form their friendships and that through these they experience a feeling of being together in the daily routines at the kindergarten. The children take part in physical activities and communication to establish and maintain a common sense of 'we'. The friendships are characterised by e.g. humour, conflicts, conflict resolution, strengthening, challenging the rules, as well as an ethical dimension. The friendships enable the children to develop a sense of empathy. As stable relationships and time for joint interaction are essential for the children, the researcher recommends that there be physical space for the children, both inside and outside, for them to develop their friendships. This requires that the adults show some restraint in relation to intervening in the children's interactions; that they provide for ‘meetings’ to occur between children to make it possible for all children to make a friend; and that they support both budding and established friendships, e.g. in the composition of groups, table location and transfer to other group rooms.

The study is designed as a case study. The study is based on video footage of activities among ten children aged between two to three years during a period of ten months. The material is analysed on the basis of a phenomenological perspective.

Greve, A. (2007). Vennskap mellom små barn i barnehagen. Oslo: Det utdanningsvitenskapelige fakultetet Unipub.