Developmental study of social cognition and social problem-solving strategies in interpersonal conflict situations in preschool children

The present study concerns developmental changes in social cognition of interpersonal conflict situations and social problem-solving strategies for interpersonal conflicts. 130 Japanese preschool children, 4, 5, and 6 years old (about equal numbers of boys and girls), answered questions as to how they would feel and behave when provoked by their peers. The variable manipulated was the other's hostility in conflict situations. 5 social problem-solving strategies that the children provided were analyzed by an analysis of variance. (1) The children recognized the other's hostility. (2) Older children shifted from nonverbal and dependent strategies to verbal-assertive and independent strategies. (3) Although the children adopted more verbal strategies when they realized the other's hostility, they took more passive strategies as well. The difference among age groups was most significant between the 5- and 6-year-olds. (4) When the 6-year-olds did not identify the other's hostility, they understood themselves to take a passive strategy, even if they saw the situation as negative. In terms of social cognition, these results suggest a significant relation between the recognition of the other's hostility and social problem-solving strategies in conflict situations.