Preschool Children's Food Sharing with Friends and Acquaintances

Abstract

BIRCH, LEANN LIPPS, and BILLMAN, JANE. Preschool Children's Food Sharing with Friends and Acquaintances. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1986, 57, 387-395. To investigate children's sharing of preferred and nonpreferred food with same-sex peers, 57 3-5-year-old children participated twice as potential sharers-once with a friend and once with an acquaintance. Food was unequally distributed, with the target child receiving 10 pieces each of preferred and nonpreferred food and the potential recipient only 1. Half of the target children had been recipients before becoming sharers. The analysis revealed a sex x relationship interaction, with girls sharing more with friends than with acquaintances, and boys not sharing differentially. Most sharing was actually elicited by the potential recipient, with friends being more active elicitors; spontaneous and passive sharing were rare. The type of previous experience as a recipient influenced subsequent sharing behavior: children who had received food earlier were more likely to share than those who had not.