SHARING BEHAVIOR AND EMOTIONAL RELATIONS IN CHILDHOOD

The present research focuses on preschool children’s sharing behavior on their different types of dyadic peer relationships. The dyadic peer relations were assessed based on sociometric nomination data where we made the distinction between positive and negative, reciprocated and non-reciprocated dyadic relations. The sharing behavior in these relations was analyzed in a special sharing task created by the author. First children had to share six strawberries, between him/herself and the other child of the dyad then they had to predict the other child’s sharing behavior. In this sharing task children could express their sharing preference to the other child in different types of dyadic relationships. By asking children to predict the other child’s sharing behavior in the dyad we can see their knowledge about these relationships. The different pattern of sharing behavior, which was recognized in the different types of dyads, indicated that the sharing behavior was basically determined by the emotional bond between the children involved in a dyad.