In the peer group at daycare, the child gains experience of functioning as an equal member of the community. With friends, the preschooler enters a world where they practice new skills together, encounter and resolve conflicts, share and create experiences inspired by their imagination, and learn to function as part of a larger daycare group.
This study focuses on preschool children’s peer relationship skills and bullying in peer relationships. The study focuses on the child’s everyday life and social world in preschool, where routines include guided instructional sessions, free play, pair and group work, meals, and outdoor activities.
The examination of children’s interactions opens the door to children’s own operating environment, where they are active actors in shaping rules and cultural structures. The research material was collected from five daycare centers by observing and interviewing children and using evaluation forms filled out by researchers and teacher evaluators as research material. Daycare centers often provide the first extensive peer community, where a child forms various interaction relationships with several peers. Peer relationships are defined here as an individual’s interaction relationship with peers, i.e. children who are approximately at the same level in terms of cognitive, emotional and social development (Pörhölä 2008, 94; Salmivalli 2005, 15–16).
This study focuses on the child’s peer relationships, but of course peers are only one significant socialization environment. From a balanced development perspective, a child needs input from both adults and peers (Hartup 2009). Sibling relationships have also been found to be related to child development (Downey & Condron 2004).
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Tiina Lautamo
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