Cooperative and non-cooperative behaviour in pairs of children: the reciprocal effects of social interaction in the ongoing construction of a play sequence.

We know that some social interactions begin and end cooperatively, while others start aggressively and end up even more so. We also know that in some social interactions one of the partners might initially behave either cooperatively or competitively and aggressively towards the other partner, who may respond with the opposite type of behavior. However, over time, as the relationship evolves, behavioral patterns may change as each partner adapts to the behavior of the other. We think that as social interactions evolve over time, it is possible to identify two phases: first, a reciprocal exploration phase, and second, an adjustment phase. Investigating very short term social interaction sequences of about ten minutes, we concluded that these two phases last about five minutes each. The present study investigates the relationships between cooperative and non-cooperative or competitive behavior in pairs of children in the ongoing process of interaction during a ten-minute play sequence. To reach our goal, we first divided the time of the play sequence (10’) in two phases and looked at the differences between the first and second phase (5’ each). Second, we divided the pairs of children in three groups: i) initially high in cooperation; ii) initially high in competition; iii) initially high in both. Third, we looked at the outcomes using both linear and logistic regression analyses. We hypothesised that: a) initially prevalent cooperative behavior is more likely to end in cooperation; b) initially prevalent competitive behavior is more likely to end in competition; c) initially mixed social interactions (both cooperative and competitive) are more likely to end in abandonment of the interaction and doing nothing. Our sample is composed of 125 pairs of children. 69% (N=86) of the pairs were composed of same-sex children, while the remaining 31% (N=39) were mixed. The individuals within each pair were the same age. 35% of the pairs (N =44) were eight years old, 38% (N =48) were ten years old, and 27% (N=33) were twelve years old. We observed the cooperative and competitive behavior of both the partners. The task was to finish a puzzle in ten minutes. Our findings confirmed only our first two hypotheses. We found that initially mixed situations were also more likely to end in cooperation. These findings underline the importance of intervention programs aimed at promoting social and cooperative skills in children to avoid starting negative social cycles or patterns.