”Observation-based descriptions of social status in the pre-school”.

The purpose of this study is to develop an observation-based method for assessing the social status of children at daycare centres as well as assessing the applicability of the method.

The study found that the method can be used to describe the social centrality of children in kindergarten, and that the three dimensions of the sociogram were independent of each other as well as independent of adults' perception of the child. Therefore, the study concludes that the three dimensions provide unique knowledge about the child. Moreover, researchers find that positive and negative contact between the children is not correlated. Therefore, if a child experiences a relatively high degree of negative contact with other children, this does not necessarily reflect low social status. The researchers also find that there has been a development in the contact between children in different age groups and that, up until the age of two, this contact is most likely not independent of the child carers' influence. Age affects the status of a child in a group of children. However, the oldest children are not necessarily the most popular.

The study is based on 20 hours of video footage of children's free play at a Norwegian daycare centre. Observations of 61 children aged 11 to 61 months were categorised on the basis of voluntary participation by the children in social activities as well as interaction with other children. On this basis, a sociogram was drawn up with the following three dimensions: social focus, social centrality and social activity.

Martinsen, H., Nærland, T. og Vereijken, B. (2010). ”Observation-based descriptions of social status in the pre-school”. Early Child Development and Care, 180(9), 1231-1241.