Aggression and assertiveness in kindergarten children differing in day care experiences☆

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Abstract

Differences in social behaviors of middle-class children with and without previous day care experience were compared through classroom observations and teacher ratings during the second semester of kindergarten. Using a time-sampling procedure, two researchers observed positive social behavior, assertiveness, instrumental aggression, and hostile aggression of 32 children from eight different kindergarten classrooms during free-choice time. Each child was also rated by his/her own teacher on assertiveness, ability to get along with peers, hostile aggression, and instrumental aggression. Teachers' ratings of hostile aggression were significantly correlated with observations of hostile aggression (p < .05) and assertiveness (p < .01), suggesting that teachers may confound assertive and aggressive behaviors. Observed frequencies of assertive behaviors were correlated with those of positive social (p < .05) and instrumental aggression (p < .05), but not with frequencies of hostile aggression (p < .20). However, no significant differences between day care and home-reared children were found on any of the rated or observed variables.

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☆

Portions of this study were presented at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association, Washington, DC, April 23, 1987. This article is partially based on a thesis submitted to Iowa State University by the second author, who is currently at Winthrop College, Rockhill, SC. The research was supported in part by the Family and Consumer Sciences Institute at Iowa State University.

1

We wish to acknowledge the assistance of Sharon Youngquist in data collection. Journal Paper No. 439 of Family and Consumer Sciences Research Institute, College of Family and Consumer Sciences, Iowa State University.

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