Developmental Psychology

1978, Vol. 14, No. 5,517-523

A Longitudinal Study of Social Participation in

Preschool Children: Solitary and Parallel Play
Reexamined
PETER K. SMITH
University of Sheffield
Sheffield, England

Longitudinal observations were made over a 9-month period of the social participa-
tion of 48 preschool children. Group play increased and solitary play decreased
during the period, while parallelplay did not vary much in overall occurrence. Some
2-year-olds went through successive stages of predominantly solitary, then parallel,
then group play, but many others did not. Some 3- and 4-year-olds alternated
between periods of predominantly group play and periods of predominantly solitary
play. The results are discussed in relation to the relative maturity of solitary and
parallel play and the usefulness of a social participation index at this age range.

Mildred Parten's (Fatten, 1932; Parten &
Newhall, 1943) study of the social participa-
tion of preschool children has become one of
the classics of tBfc 1930s era of child psy-
chology. Parten introduced six categories of
participation in play behavior. In particular,
she used the term parallel play to indicate a
limited degree of participation, in which
children play near each other, with similar
materials, but do not engage in substantial
interaction. Parten regarded parallel play as
"more socialized" than solitary or onlooker
behavior but less socialized than associative
or cooperative group play. By appropriately
weighting her categories, she obtained
a composite "social participation" index,
which correlated .61 with age.
The importance and nature of parallel play
has been subjected to surprisingly little criti-
cal Scrutiny, despite the fact that Parten's
observations were based on only one nurs-
The facilities on which this research is based were
supported financially by Grant 1414/2 from the Social
Science Research Council, London.
The author is grateful to Robert Hinde and Rosemary
Roper for their comments on an earlier draft of the
manuscript.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Peter K.
Smith, Department of Psychology, University of
Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, England.
Copyright 1978 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. OOI2-1649/78/l405-05l7$00.75
ery school. Nor has the utility of a social
participation index been much examined.
Particularly puzzling is the nonsignificant
correlation of .12 that Parten obtained be-
tween social participation and nursery ex-
perience. This finding might suggest that a
longitudinal study of social participation
would give different results from the cross-
sectional data she presented.
Parten's own cross-sectional data show
some decline in solitary behavior with age
and also some decline in parallel play, with
an increase in both associative and coopera-
tive group play. Somewhat similar cross-
sectional data were obtained by Barnes
(1971), these data also being from one nurs-
ery group. However, the trends for solitary
and parallel play are small, and for parallel
play nonlinear with age, in both studies.
Some support for the utility of a social
participation index comes from work by
Smith and Connolly (1972) and Smith
(1973). These studies employed principal-
components analyses to find main dimen-
sions of individual difference in children,
based on frequencies of observed behaviors.
In both cases a main component of "social
maturity" was obtained. Smith and Con-
nolly (1972) found group play to be loaded

517
518 PETER K. SMITH
positively, parallel play negligibly, and sol-
itary play negatively on this component.
Smith (1973) in a separate study found that a
social participation index (weighting group
play as 1, parallel play as 0, solitary play as
-1) correlated .81 with age and was highly
loaded on the main social maturity compo-
nent. These studies were based on 4 day
nurseries in England.
Some recent work, however, has sug-
gested that parallel play should not necessar-
ily be regarded as an intermediate form of
socialization between solitary and group
play; and this in turn would question the use
of a social participation index, as used by
Fatten (1932) and Smith (1973). Moore,
Everton, and Brophy (1974) suggest that sol-
itary play need not be an indicator of poor
social adjustment. This is based on the ob-
servation that much solitary play is occupied
in goal-directed activities, large muscle
play, or educational play; less than 16.5%
was classified as onlooking, daydreaming,
sulking, or seeking the teacher. However,
Moore et al. were studying kindergarten
rather than nursery school children, and in
the latter the proportion of solitary behavior
that is unoccupied is considerably higher
(see Table 1). Rubin, Maioni, and Hornung
(1976) found that about 48% of solitary play
in preschool was onlooker or unoccupied
behavior. Nevertheless, Rubin et al. also
argue that parallel and not solitary play is
"the least mature level of a social cognitive
play hierarchy for 3- and 4-year-olds" (p.
418).
The principal-components analysis jus-
tification of a social participation index has
also been reevaluated in recent work by
Roper and Hinde (in press). These authors
observed 3- and 4-year-olds in two English
nursery classes. Although a principal-
components analysis gave a first component
somewhat similar to that of Smith (1973), a
further rotated factor-analytic solution re-
vealed what these authors interpret as a
breakdown of this first component into three
subfactors. These were (a) group play ver-
sus parallel play, or whether given proximity
children were interacting; (b) solitary play,
or whether a child was in proximity to others
or not; and (c) unoccupied behavior. These
findings cast doubt on the utility of a linear
social participation index with parallel play
in an intermediate position. However, they
do not particularly support the contention of
Moore et al. (1974) and of Rubin et al. (1976)
that parallel play is less mature than solitary
play. Roper and Hinde's first factor shows
no appreciable age correlation, although
negative correlations with age were ob-
tained for the second and third factors.
From these contradictory findings, one
consensual implication might be drawn.
This is that whether a child is occupied at a
task or not, is conceptually and empirically
largely separate from whether he or she is in
proximity or interaction with other children
or not. There is no dispute that a preschool
child can be engaged alone on a constructive
task. However, the fact of being engaged in
task activity may not tell us anything about
that child's social maturity. Indeed, as Jen-
nings (1975) has indicated, people and ob-
ject orientation may correspond to fairly
separate abilities in preschool children.
Similarly, the existence of Roper and
Hinde's separate third factor (unoccupied or
not) contrasts with their first two factors
relating to social abilities (proximity to and
interaction with others). From this view-
point, Parten's original scheme can be seen
to have compounded purely social participa-
tion categories with task-related categories
such as "unoccupied." It may well be pref-
erable to limit social participation levels to
solitary, parallel, and group (and sublevels
of these categories). This has been done in
the present review and research. With the
data in Table 1, "solitary" includes "unoc-
cupied" and "onlooker" of Parten's catego-
ries, on the assumption that the vast ma-
jority of such instances involve neither close
proximity with similar materials (parallel)
nor substantial interaction (group).
Even given this simplification, the evi-
dence for the intermediate position of paral-
lel play, so far as social abilities are con-
cerned, remains poorly substantiated at
best. Critically lacking is any longitudinal
evidence that children do in fact proceed
through sequential stages of solitary, paral-
lel, and group behavior, as is suggested in
many texts of early childhood education and
play. The present report provides longitudi-
nal data on social participation and suggests
some reasons for the discrepant findings in
the earlier research referred to above.
 SOCIAL PARTICIPATION IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN
Method
Subjects
Two groups of preschool children were observed
over a 9-month period, from October 1971 to June 1972,
at a playgroup in Sheffield, England. Each group met
for two mornings each week during school terms. The
two groups met in the same premises, with the same
play-group staff and equipment, but at different times;
subjects for the two groups were from the same popula-
tion. Thus results for the two groups provide, in Lyk-
ken's (1968) terminology, an "inbuilt" literal replica-
tion.
The two groups were started at the end of September
1971 by recruiting children from the local neigh-
borhood. Social background was varied, mainly from
skilled working or middle classes. The great majority of
the children had not had any previous nursery experi-
ence at other nurseries or play groups.
Each group contained 12 boys and 12 girls, matched
for age, with the age range on entry from 28 to 47
months (M = 35 months) in the first group (Group 1)
and from 28 to 48 months (M = 36 months) in the second
group (Group 2). Half of the children were over 33
months (older), and half were 33 months or under
(younger).
Procedure
Using time-sampling methods, the children's behav-
ior was observed each morning session through the
9-month period by one observer. The main purpose of
the study was to examine the effects of varied
amounts of floor space, and play equipment, on the
children's behavior (Smith, 1974; Smith & Connolly,
1977). An independent factor in the design was time
through the project. The observational data were ob-
tained in six consecutive time blocks, of about 5 weeks
each; each time block contained environmental varia-
tions as noted above, but separate time blocks were
equivalent in this respect.
At each session, children's behavior was observed
and recorded in short focal-child samples of 40-sec du-
ration. Four such samples were obtained for each child
at each session, with at least a 10-min separation (usu-
ally more) between samples on any one child. Supple-
mentary samples were obtained at the next session in
cases of absence (not very frequent; mean attendance
was 91% in Group 1 and 90% in Group 2). Each time
block contained 10 sessions for each group, which
therefore yielded 40 independent samples per child.
At the end of each sample period of 40 sec, the nature
of the child's social participation and activity choice for
the majority of the sample period was recorded by the
observer. The categories relevant to this article are
described below,
Nature of Social Behavior Measures
Group. The focal child has one or more other children
who interact substantially with him or her in the nature
of the activity, either visually, verbally, through ex-
519
changing objects, or in the organization of a game. This
category subsumes Parten's categories of associative
and cooperative play.
Parallel. The focal child has one or more other children
who are in close proximity to him or her and are en-
gaged in similar behaviors. However, these compan-
ions do not interact with the focal child or they do so
only fleetingly; their presence does not substantially
affect his or her behavior. This category corresponds to
Parten's category of parallel play.
Solitary. The child has no companion in group activity
or parallel behavior. This category subsumes Parten's
categories of solitary play and onlooker activity and
would usually include her category of unoccupied be-
havior.
Adult. The child is in group or parallel activity with an
adult.
These four categories were comprehensive and
mutually exclusive; one category was scored at the end
of each sample period.
Nature of Task Activity Measures
Occupied. The child is engaged in active use of some
object or apparatus in the environment, or in gross
motor activity, or in substantial social interaction.
Unoccupied. The child is not occupied as defined above.
Generally, this includes wandering around, just watch-
ing other children,just holding, or repetitively fumbling
an object.
Interobserver Agreements
Simultaneous recording with a second observer, ex-
perienced in child watching and given the above defini-
tions but no specific further training, gave interobserver
agreements (no. agreements/(no. agreements + mean
no. disagreements) of .88 for group, .76 for parallel, .85
for solitary, and .94 for adult. Judgment as to whether a
child was occupied or unoccupied gave a concordance
of .94.
These concordances were based on 100 simultaneous
samples by the two observers. As a check on the time
stability of the principal observer, 50 samples were
made prior to the start of the main study and another 50
at the midpoint. Concordances were substantially the
same at these two occasions.
Results
In analyzing the results, samples in which
the child was with an adult were ignored, as
generally this involved some constraint on
the child's behavior. For the remaining
samples, the percentages of solitary, parallel
and group behavior are shown in Table 1, in
comparison with results from Parten (1932),
520 PETER K. SMITH

Table 1: Percentages of Solitary, Parallel, and Group Activity, and of Unoccupied/Onlooker as a

Percentage of Solitary, in Previous and Present Studies on Nursery-School-Aged Children
Rubin et al. Present
Barnes (1976) study
Activity Parten
measure (1932) (1971) MC LC Group 1 Group 2
Solitary 29 51 32 35 39 35
Parallel 32 24 29 37 23 27
Group 38 25 39 28 37 38
Unoccupied/solitary 40 47 54 43 37 42
Note. MC = middle class; LC = lower class.

Barnes (1971), and Rubin et al. (1976). The Individual Sequences

figures are similar, although not supporting Results for each child in each time block
Barnes' claim for a decrease in social par- were considered separately and assigned a
ticipation in the 45 years since Parten's data code of G (group), P (parallel), or S (soli-
were gathered.
tary), according to which category had the
When unoccupied was scored, the child
highest total. A few cases of ties (10 out of
was almost invariably solitary, although a 288) were resolved in favor of the "higher"
few cases of parallel behavior did occur. category. Each code thus shows the most
Unoccupied as a percentage of solitary be- common form of social behavior for a par-
havior is also not greatly different from the ticular child during one 5-week time block.
other nursery school studies, all being much The child sequences were put into six dif-
larger than the 16.5% maximum figure that ferent types, shown in Table 3. Children are
Moore et al. (1974) obtained for kindergar- coded by group (1 and 2), older or younger
ten children. age (O or Y), boy or girl (B and G), and a
number from 1 to 6.
The types and subtypes are listed in order
Overall Time Changes
of age means. Type A children started in G.
The successive totals for each category in There is little difference between Al chil-
each time block are shown for both groups of dren who always stayed in G and A2 chil-
children in Table 2. There is a consistent dren who alternated G with some blocks of
increase in group behavior and decrease in S.
solitary and unoccupied behavior, while Type B children started in S (Bl and B2)
parallel behavior shows no significant varia- or P (B3) and made a transition to G at some
tions. However, these overall trends ob- point. The 11 B1 children went direct from S
scure the actual changes in the nature of to G, whereas the 6 B2 children went
primary social behavior in individual chil- through from S to G with P as an inter-
dren. mediary stage.
Table 2: Category Totals in Successive Time Blocks and Significance Levels
from Analysis of Variance
Time Sequence
Measure and group
Group
1 192 263 294 317 322 390 .001
2 159 183 290 366 432 378 .001
Parallel
1 197 188 192 157 179 185 ns
2 261 223 199 212 220 198 ns
Solitary
1 356 342 308 317 318 235 .001
2 360 376 288 243 205 222 .001
Unoccupied
1 169 132 78 87 99 65 .001
2 184 162 86 74 73 67 .001
 SOCIAL PARTICIPATION IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN 521

Table 3: Types of Sequence of Predominant Social Activity for Individual Children over
Six Successive Time Blocks

Type and M age M unoccupied/ Time sequence

subtype (in mo.) solitary (%) Children T, T2 T3 T4 T5 T6
A (« = 13)"
Al 40.6 31.7 10B2, 1OB4, 1OG1 G G G G G G
1OG4, 1OG6, 20B1 G G G G G G
2OB4, 2OB5, 20G1 G G G G G G
A2 39.5 33.3 1OG3, 2OB2 G S G G G G
1YG3 G G G S G G
10G2 G S G S G G
B (n = 24)"
Bl 34.6 31.3 1YB4, 2YB3 S S G G G G
20B3 s S S G G G
1OB6, 1OG5 S S S S G G
1OB3, 1YG4 s s s S S G
1YB1 s G s G G G
20G3 s S s G G S
2OB6 s s s S G S
1YG5 s s s G G P
B2 34.3 48.5 2OG2, 2YG4 s p G G G G
IYB5 s s P G G G
1YG2 s s S P G G
2YB4 s s S S P G
1OB5 s s p S G G
B3 33.3 67.9 2YG2, 2YG5, 2YG6 p p p G G G
2YB2 p G p G G P
2OG3 p S G G G G
c
2OG6, 2YG1 p s S S G S
C(n = ll)
Cl 33.2 40.8 1OB1, 1YB2, 1YB3 s s s S S S
1YB6, 1YG1, 1YG6 s s s S S S
2OG4, 2YB1, 2YB6 s s s s S s
C2 31.0 31.5 2YG3 s s p s s s
2YB5 p s p p s p
Note. Children are coded, in order, by group ( l a n d 2), olderor younger (O and Y), boy orgirl (Band O). and a number from 1 to 6. Codes to which the
children were assigned in successive time blocks on the basis of predominant social behavior are as follows: G (group), S (solitary), and P (parallel).
Children IOG6 and 2YB3 left shortly before the study ended. Their T, data were obtained during Ts.
" M age = 40.2 mo.; mean unoccupied/solitary = 32.2%; starts in G.
" M age = 34.2 mo.; mean unoccupied/solitary = 46.3%; makes transition to G.
' M age = 32.8 mo.; mean unoccupied/solitary = 39,1%; makes no transition to G.

Type C children failed to make a transitionchildren (34-48 months) and all 24 younger
children (28-33 months). The older children
to G. They either stayed in S all the time (Cl)
or varied between S and P (C2). most often stay in G, next most often stay in
Type A children are significantly older S, and next most often transfer between the
than Type B children, [7(13, 24) = 56.0,p < two states. Transitions to P are very rare.
.01, and Type C children, [7(13, 11) = 21.0, The younger children most often stay in S,
p < .01. Type B and C children do not dif- next most often stay in G, and are approxi-
fer significantly in age, C/(24, 11) = 105.0, mately equally likely to move from S to P, P
ns. to G, or S to G.
Unoccupied as a percentage of solitary As parallel is overall the least likely qf the
behavior does not differ significantly be- three social behavior categories (see Table
tween any of the three main types on 1), it is possible that its apparent relative
Mann-Whitney tests. Individual children unimportance (see Table 3 and Figure 1) is
showed a lot of variation in this statistic. exaggerated when coding each time block as
S, P, or G. Perhaps even for Type Bl chil-
Transition Probabilities Between States
dren, for example, there is an increase in
parallel before the child shows predomi-
Figure 1 shows the transition probabilities nantly group activity, and a decrease after-
between S, P, and G, from one time block to wards, even though parallel is never the most
the next, summed separately for all 24 older likely category for a substantial time period.
522 PETER K. SMITH
older
.01
Figure 1. Transition probabilities between states of social behavior for older and
younger preschool children.
These possibilities were examined for the 11
Type Bl children.
First, the two successive S states before
the transition to G were examined to see
whether parallel showed an increase. Out of
10 cases, 4 showed an increase and 6 a de-
crease.
Second, the two successive G states after
the transition from S were examined to see
whether parallel showed a decrease. Out of
eight cases, 4 showed a decrease and 4 an
increase.
In both cases, there is no evidence for any
systematic relation between the amount of
parallel activity and the transition from S to
G.
Discussion
The results point clearly to differences in
the sequences of social participation in chil-
dren over time, only partly attributable to
chronological age. Thirteen children, mainly
older (11 were over 3 years old) went more
or less directly into predominantly group
play with companions. Of these, 9 remained
this way continuously, but 4 alternated sub-
stantial time blocks of predominantly soli-
tary behavior. These children were no
younger than the others, and their solitary
play was no more or less occupied. Proba-
bly, these bouts of solitary behavior re-
flected changing friendship preferences,
without indicating immaturity on the part of
the children concerned.
younger
.06
Eleven children started predominantly in
solitary behavior, and at some point they
changed directly to predominantly group
behavior. No substantial period of predomi-
nantly parallel behavior intervened, nor was
there evidence for any nonrandom change in
parallel behavior during the transition pe-
riod. One sequence for social involvement
therefore seems to be to go fairly directly
from playing alone to playing with others.
This seems to be a preferred sequence for
older children (see Figure 1). It is also fol-
lowed by some younger children: 5 of the 11
were under 33 months old on entry.
However, six children did show a transi-
tion from solitary, through parallel, to group
behavior. Four of the six were under 33
months old on entry. This seems to be an
alternative sequence for the 2-year-olds or
younger three-year-olds, and it corresponds
to the "classic" view of social participation,
although it is not the most common in this
sample.
Five children went directly from parallel
to group behavior, and three more did so with
bouts of solitary behavior intervening. Fi-
nally, 11 children either stayed in predomi-
nantly solitary behavior, or (two children)
alternated with bouts of parallel behavior.
Although older children generally showed
less solitary behavior, the percentage of un-
occupied activity in solitary behavior was
not significantly different. Variations be-
tween individual children outweighed varia-
tions between types. This supports the no-
 SOCIAL PARTICIPATION IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN
tion that the extent to which a child may
occupy him- or herself in an activity is, to
some extent at least, independent of his or
her social participation level.
In summary, parallel behavior is found
throughout the preschool period, in 2- to
5-year-old children. It does decrease with
age, but not very substantially (cf. Barnes,
1971; Parten, 1932). However it is usually
only found as a predominant behavior in
2-year-olds, or younger 3-year-olds, and in
such circumstances it does often precede a
period of predominantly group behavior.
Most 3- and 4-year-olds move from mainly
solitary to mainly group behavior directly.
Thus a phase of predominantly parallel be-
havior is a sign of a younger or perhaps a less
mature child. To this extent, Rubin et al.
(1976) are right to question the social matu-
rity of parallel play.
Solitary behavior differs in that it does
decrease noticeably with age through the
preschool period (cf. Barnes, 1971; Parten,
1932). Although less frequent in older chil-
dren, however, some 3- and 4-year-olds do
show periods of predominantly solitary be-
havior, alternating with predominantly
group behavior. In this sense, solitary play
can be seen perhaps as a mature coping be-
havior, in children who would not now show
predominantly parallel play. However, sol-
itary play seems to be an "option" for these
older children, in a way in which it is not for
the younger ones (see Table 3).
The results do question the usefulness of a
social participation index in which parallel is
weighted intermediately between solitary
and group. At best, it would be a reasonable
approximation for 2-year-olds and younger
3-year-olds. For older 3-year-olds and
4-year-olds, it is a much less good approxi-
mation. It is probably not coincidental that
the earlier studies using social participation
indexes (Parten, 1932; Smith, 1973; Smith &
Connolly, 1972) had many 2-year-olds in the
sample, whereas in the more critical studies
(Moore et al., 1974; Roper & Hinde, in
523
press; Rubin et al., 1976) all the children
were 3 years old or over.
It would be worthwhile to investigate fur-
ther the different sequences shown by chil-
dren as they become able to play a lot with
other children. Why do some 2-year-olds
seem to rely on parallel play and others not?
This will require more detailed longitudinal
studies at this age range as well as further
knowledge of factors outside the immediate
nursery situation.
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