On The Characteristics Of Preschoolers' Peer Conflict In Mixed Ages

The quality of parent-child interaction is affected to some extent by the fast-paced society and economy in modern society. Other than parent-child relation, peer relation is an important element of interpersonal relations for children. However, most children's peer interaction is limited to same-ages in kindergarten, which makes children's peer relationship more single. Due to the fact that peer relationship plays an important role in children's development, a number of researchers have been investigating and seeking a more natural and more ecological environment which more favorable for children's development. In this environment, the objects of children's interaction include not only same-age peers but also mixed-age peers. The children's age, development levels, life experiences, and personality differences are more different in mixed-age classes than in parallel classes, which provide more heterogeneous and extensive stimulations for the development of children. Moreover, in mixed-age classes, children interact with multi-age peers and therefore conflict with them. In the course of dealing with conflicts, children steadily build their cognitive structure, enrich their social feelings, gain social perspective taking, and acquire certain social skills. However, in mixed-age background, the causes of children's peer conflict, the forms of their conflict, the ways to resolve their conflict, and the characteristics of children's peer conflict are yet unclear. For example, although there is evidence that children display more pro-social behaviors such as sharing, cooperating, moderation and so on, a lot of specific issues have been rarely mentioned in previous studies, including if peer conflict will be reduced greatly in mixed-age background, if the pro-social strategy will be used at higher rate, and the superior resources for children's social development in mixed ages. Therefore, it is very important, in terms of theoretical and practical significance, to investigate the characteristics of children's peer conflict in mixed ages and provide reasonable proposes to resolve children's conflict for teachers.By the natural observation, the present study observed a mixed-age class in a kindergarten in Dalian. The author recorded the peer conflict objectively, encoded children's conflict according to previous studies and practical observation, concluded and analyzed the collected data, which may be contribute to understanding the causes of children's peer conflict, and the resolution strategies adopted by children, summing up the characteristics of peer conflict in mixed ages, analyzing the reasons behind behavior, and providing reasonable suggestions for teachers dealing with children's conflict. The present paper includes five parts: the first part described the study background and theoretical and practical significance in mixed ages; the second part mainly reviewed the past research on mixed ages and children's peer conflict, summarized the theoretical basis, and defined the mutuality concepts; the third part put up the purpose of this study and described the specific research methods; the fourth part analyzed the conflict results with data and typical cases; the fifth part provided some suggestions to deal with peer conflict and made some reflections on the present study.