| Summary: | This study explored social behaviors of infants and toddlers as they develop within the natural environment. The purpose was to increase our understanding of social development, which, in the future, could be used to help develop methods to identify young children who may be at-risk for future social concerns. Caregiver rating scales are the primary tools used to measure social behavior in early childhood. Few systematic direct observation systems exist to observe the social
behaviors of young children within their natural environments. The majority of current observation measures monitor social interactions between peers, not between children and their caregivers; in addition, they focus on preschool age children (i.e., three to five years old), not infants and toddlers. To begin to address these gaps in the available observation measures, this study identified social behaviors based on the literature and the bioecological model, that were thought to
represent social behaviors that emerge in early childhood. These behaviors were further explored, grouped into four categories (i.e., No Acknowledgement, Acknowledgement, Attention Seeking, Engagement), and operational definitions were developed by watching 15 video recordings of children ages 12, 24, and 36 months (5 video observations per age group) during a naturalistic play observation with their caregiver. Then, the identified four categories of behaviors were recorded using a
10-second partial interval coding system during a 14-minute video recording of 75 children ages 12, 24, and 36 months during play with their caregivers. Every sixth interval (once per minute) caregiver social behavior was recorded. Results from a repeated measures analysis of variance indicated a significant interaction between the four social categories and age, F (4.98, 179.24) = 21.76, p < .001, partial eta squared = .377. Specifically, 12-month-old children displayed high levels
of Acknowledgement and low levels of Engagement behaviors, whereas 36-month-old children displayed high levels of Engagement and low levels of Acknowledgement behaviors. Attention Seeking behaviors increased from 12- to 24-months and decreased from 24- to 36-months, but occurred at relatively high frequencies across age groups. Positive correlations between caregiver and child No Acknowledgement, Acknowledgement, and Engagement behaviors were observed, suggesting relationships between
caregiver and child interactions for these three behaviors. Acknowledgement behaviors were found to be negatively correlated with scores on the Battelle Developmental Inventory, Second Edition-Screening Test (BDI-2-ST; Newborg, 2005) and complex play scores as measured by the Developmental Play Assessment (DPA; Lifter, 2000). Engagement behaviors, in contrast, were positively correlated with BDI-2-ST and complex DPA scores. The importance of Acknowledgement and Engagement behaviors
representing social development across ages is discussed. In addition, the importance of Attention Seeking behaviors as social behaviors that are present across all ages is addressed. Finally, limitations of the current study as well as future research directions to further explore the development of social behaviors are presented.
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