Free-Play Behaviors in Preschool and Kindergarten Children

Author(s): Kenneth H. Rubin, Kathryn S. Watson and Thomas W. Jambor

Source: Child Development, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Jun., 1978), pp. 534-536
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Society for Research in Child Development
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1128725 .
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Free-Play Behaviors in Preschool and
Kindergarten Children

Kenneth H. Rubin and Kathryn S. Watson

University of Waterloo

Thomas W. Jambor
Universityof Alabamaat Birmingham

RUBIN, KENNETH H.; WATSON, KATHRYN S.; and JAMBOR, THOMAS W. Free-Play Behaviors in
Preschool and KindergartenChildren. CHILDDEVELOPMENT,1978, 49, 534-536. The present
study concernedage differencesin the socialand cognitiveplay of children.It was revealed
that kindergarten
childrendisplayedless unoccupied,onlooker,solitary,and functionalactivity
and more group and4ramaticplay than preschoolers.Examinationof the combinedParten-
SmilanskyPlay Scale revealedpreschoolersto engage in significantlymore solitary-functional
and parallel-functional
play and in less parallel-constructive,
parallel-dramatic,and group
dramaticplay than theirkindergartencounterparts.

Recently Rubin (e.g., Rubin, Maioni, & was to examine comparatively the free-play
Hornung 1976) has examined the free-play behaviorsof both preschool-and kindergarten-
behaviorsof preschoolersby utilizing an obser- aged children.
vational format which nests the cognitive play
categories of Smilansky (1968) within the so- The preschoolersparticipatingin the pres-
cial play categories of Parten (1932). Smilan- ent investigationincluded all 15 males (mean
sky's four sequential play categorieshave been age = 51.93 months) and 12 females (mean
labeled functional (simple, repetitive muscle age = 53 months) who attended a half-day
movements with or without objects), construc- program on the campus of a small teacher's
tive (creating something), and dramatic (sub- college in New York State (age range = 45-
stitution of imaginarysituationsto satisfy one's 59 months). The kindergarten sample con-
wishes or needs) play and games with rules, sisted of all 14 males (mean age = 62.30
months) and 14 females (mean age = 64.70
respectively. Parten'ssix sequential social play
categories included unoccupied behavior months) attending a half-day public school
of program in central Ontario (age range = 58-
(watching anything passing interest; walk- 69
ing around room; playing with body), solitary schools months). The pupil-teacher ratio in both
was 10:1. The curriculumof each class-
play (playing alone with materials different
from childrenwithin speakingdistance;no con- room would be considered"traditional"(Sears
versation with others), onlooker behavior & Dowley 1963) in nature. All play behavior
was observed in the one large classroomavail-
(watching others; perhaps talking to others able to each group of children. The children
but with no entry into the play situation),
parallel play (playing independentlywith toys were predominantly from lower-middle-class
similar to those being used by others in close homes.
proximity; no attempt to play with others), The procedure was essentially identical
associative play (playing with other children; with that followed by Rubin et al. (1976).
no role assignmentor organizationof Each child was observed during free play for
activity),
and cooperativeplay (playing in an 1 min on 30 consecutiveschool days. The order
organized
group). of observation was randomized daily. During
each minute, the observer recorded the num-
Investigations which have adopted the ber of seconds (to the nearest 5 sec) in which
strategy of nesting cognitive play within social the child engaged in particularforms of play.
play categories have been limited to children The durationof each child'scognitiveplay with-
of preschoolage. Thus, the intent of this
study in each social play category (e.g., solitary-func-
Requestsfor reprintsshouldbe sent to KennethH. Rubin,Departmentof
Universityof Waterloo,Waterloo,OntarioN2L 3G1. Psychology,
[ChildDevelopment,1978,49, 534-536. @ 1978 by the Society for Researchin Child
Development,Inc.
751
0009-3920/78/4902-00391;00.

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tional) was noted. Following each time sample,
the observerrecorded exactly what it was the
child was doing and with whom (e.g., subject
at table independently building block tower-
sitting beside Amy and Leslie who are using
play dough). The only deviation from Rubin
et al. (1976) concerned the associative and
cooperative play categories. Upon reviewing
the behavioral data, we found that particular
activities were being consistently coded as
"associative"in preschoolersbut "cooperative"
in kindergartners.As a result, these two cate-
gories were collapsed to form a single "group
play" category. In addition, unoccupied and
onlookerbehaviorswere scored.
Interjudge reliability was calculated in
two ways. First, priorto formaldata collection,
two observers simultaneously gathered 20
1-min time samples of play for each of the
preschool and kindergarten groups. Percent-
ages of agreement (where an agreement was
defined as identical codings of behavior with
durationsnot exceeding a 5-sec difference be-
tween observers) of 92.5 and 87.5 were found
for the preschool and kindergartensample, re-
spectively. Second, 20 1-minsamplesfromeach
TABLE 1
MEANS AND PERCENTAGESFOR COMBINEDSOCIAL
AND COGNITIVEPLAY CATEGORIES
Rubin, Watson, and Jambor 535
of the preschool and kindergartenwritten re-
cordings of behavior were randomly selected.
The senior author then assigned these written
descriptions (made by the two junior authors)
to social-cognitiveplay categories. Percentages
of agreementwere 95 for the preschool sample
and 90 for the kindergartensample.
The mean numbers of seconds children
engaged in all play forms are presented in
table 1. A grade (2) x sex (2) x social play
(3) x cognitive play (3) ANOVA was calcu-
lated. Onlooker, unoccupied, and game be-
haviors were not included in this analysis.
These three categories either occurred alone
(unoccupied and onlookerbehaviors) or across
a limited range of social-cognitive play com-
binations (games). The importantdata to con-
sider are the grade (G) x social play (S),
G x cognitive play (C), and G x S x C
interactions.A significant G x C interaction
was found, F (2,204) = 12.01, p < .02. New-
man-Keuls analyses (p < .05) revealed pre-
schoolers to display significantly more func-
tional play and less dramatic play than did
kindergartners.The latter finding may be a
function of the elder group's more advanced
conceptionsof social decentrationand recipro-

PRESCHOOL KINDERGARTEN
RMHa
MEASURE Mean %b Mean %
o
Solitary:
Functional....... 139.89 7.77 44.27 2.46 4.88
Constructive..... 247.11 13.73 241.85 13.44 7.67
Dramatic........ 34.19 1.90 31.61 1.76 2.41
Total......... 421.19 23.40 318.03 17.66 14.96
Parallel:
Functional........ 118.87 6.60 24.65 1.37 12.96
Constructive..... 300.48 16.69 392.14 21.79 15.07
Dramatic...... .. 24.81 1.38 125.00 6.94 1.04
Total.......... 444.16 24.67 541.79 30.10 29.07

Group:
Functional........ 41.99 2.33 43.04 2.39 10.47
Constructive..... 326.37 18.13 301.19 16.73 17.81
Dramatic........ 190.89 10.61 382.14 21.23 10.81
Games........... 33.19 1.84 37.50 2.08 .30
Total......... 592.44 32.91 763.57 42.43 38.77

Unoccupied ........ 118.19 6.57 16.43 .09 17.200

Onlooker .......... 223.72 12.43 160.72 8.93

Percentagesof play for middle-classchildrentaken from Rubin et al. (1976).

b Percentagescalculated by dividing mean numberof seconds per category by total seconds (1,800 sec).
* Combinedunoccupiedand onlookerpercentage.

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 536 Child Development
cal relations-two propertiesthought to be pre-
requisite to sociodramaticinterchanges (Smi-
lansky 1968). The lesser frequency of func-
tional play in kindergartnersmay be illustra-
tive of their attainmentof more complex cog-
nitive skills. This hypothetical link between
play and cognitive developmentdraws support
from the Rubin and Maioni (1975) study in
which the frequency of functional play was
related negatively to performance on classifi-
cation and role-takingtasks, while the frequen-
cy of dramatic play was related positively to
performanceon these measures.
A significantG x S interactionwas also
found, F (2,204) = 4.49, p < .02. Newman-
Keuls analyses indicated preschoolers engage
in significantly more solitary and less group
play than kindergartners.In addition, a series
of t tests between grades revealed preschoolers
to display significantlymore unoccupied,t(53)
= 4.10, p < .001, and onlooker behaviors,
t(53) = 2.64, p < .02, than kindergartners.It
is noteworthythat the amount of parallel play
was not different for the two age groups.
Moreover, the finding of solitary-play differ- scale of child's
ences may have been of some surprise given
the previous Rubin et al. (1976) belief that
this category was not as reflective of imma-
as
turity once thought (Parten 1932).
The G X S X C significant interaction, preschoolerswas qualitativelyless mature than
F (4,204) = 3.95, p < .01, clarifies the above
findings. Simultaneous consideration of both
scales revealed (Newman-Keulsanalyses) that
preschoolers engaged in significantly more
parallel-functionaland less parallel-construc- References
tive and parallel-dramaticplay than the older
children. Moreover, the kindergartenchildren
displayed less solitary-functional and more
group-dramaticplay than preschoolers.These
data indicate that within each Partenplay cate-
gory, the preschoolers tended to emit less
mature cognitive-play behaviors while kinder-
gartners displayed more mature cognitive-play Rubin,K. H.; Maioni,T. L.; & Hornung,M. Free
behaviors.'
As for sex differences,a significantsex X
S x C interaction,F(4,204) = 3.49, p <
.01,
followed by Newman-Keulsmultiple compari- Sears,P., & Dowley, E. Researchon teachingin
sons, revealed that females displayed more
parallel-constructiveand less parallel-dramatic
play than males. These data supportthe earlier
findings of Rubin et al. (1976), who reported
that females displayed more sedentary activi-
1 A completedescriptionof ANOVAand Newman-Keuls
socialand cognitiveplaywithineachgradeis availablefromK. H. Rubin
ties while males engaged in dramatic play in
close proximitybut not with their peers.
At this point, it would be worthwhile to
compare the present preschool findings with
those of Rubin et al. (1976). Given the data
for Rubin et al.'s middle-class sample, there
was more constructive and solitary play and
less functionalplay in our sample. The former
two differences may be accounted for almost
entirely by the greater incidence of solitary-
constructive play found herein. The present
group also emitted less group play than did
the previous sample. However, this difference
is entirely accountedfor by the greateramount
of group-functionalplay. In short, the Rubin
et al. (1976) sample displayed less mature
modes of play-a finding which may have re-
sulted from the children being 6.1 months
younger on the average than those observed
herein.
In conclusion, this report extended the
growing literatureconcerningthe play of young
children. The report also revealed a number
of weaknessesin the often cited Parten (1932)
play. For one, observers had
difficulty distinguishing between associative
and cooperativeplay. For another,the singular
use of the Partenscale would not have allowed
the discovery that the social-cognitiveplay of
that of kindergartners.These
findings support
the use of the nested play scale in future
studies of children'splay.
Parten,M. B. Socialparticipation
amongpreschool
children. Journal of Abnormaland Social Psy-
chology, 1932, 27, 243-269.
Rubin, K. H., & Maioni,T. L. Play preference
and its relationshipto egocentrism,popularity,
and classificationskillsin preschoolers.
Merrill-
Palmer Quarterly, 1975, 25, 171-179.
play behaviorsin middle-and lower-classpre-
schoolers:Partenand Piaget revisited.Child
Development, 1976, 47, 414-419.
the nurseryschool.In N. Gage (Ed.), Hand-
book of research on teaching. Skokie, Ill.:
RandMcNally,1963.
Smilansky, S. The effects of sociodramaticplay on
disadvantaged children: preschool children.
New York:Wiley,1968.
resultsconcerningdifferencesin
uponrequest.

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