High-Five or Bye-Bye? Thoughts about making new friends and keeping old ones

For 4-10 year-olds

This study will take place on a video call, live with a researcher! Clicking on the “Schedule a time to participate” button will send you to an online calendar where you can select a date and time that works for you. In this study, children will be read a series of short stories that describe social situations your child is likely to experience at school (On John’s first day of school, the teacher asked him to come to the front of the class to introduce himself. On his way there, he spilled some of his art supplies on the floor.). After each story, they will be asked questions about how they might respond if the character they just learned about was in their own class. While we’re going through the stories, there are some survey questions for you to complete. They cover many topics, including how your child tends to respond in social situations (My child talks easily to new people). The surveys will take 10-15 minutes to complete, but we ask that you remain in the same room with your child throughout the entire session.

Children’s beliefs about personality traits can influence their predictions about everyday social interactions and their thought processes during social challenges. For example, perhaps their best friend acts standoffish all day, and they have to decide whether they want to stop being friends or assume the friend was having a bad day. It can be tricky to measure children’s beliefs, so we have chosen to ask them directly what they think! Your child’s responses will help us understand when children first begin to understand personality traits, the information used to identify them, and whether they hold more positive or negative beliefs about different personalities. So far, studies have focused on older children and adults, well after beliefs about personality have been developed. This research will provide insights into how children’s beliefs about personality lead to different pathways in their social and emotional development.

30 minutes

Families will be sent a $15 Amazon.com e-gift card at their email address within 7 business days. We will send one gift card for each child after verifying that they 1) are within the specified age range, 2) can hear and interact with the experimenter appropriately, and 3) can be clearly seen on camera throughout the session.