Ethnic differences during social interactions of preschoolers in same-ethnic and cross-ethnic dyads

Dyadic interactions of 30 Asian-Canadian and 30 French-Canadian preschool children were analyzed in term of social participation, initiation, responses strategies and social interchange. Results showed a preference for same-ethnic partners to play more interactively together, while with a cross-ethnic partner they played more solitarily in the presence of the peer. To initiate their interactions, Asian-Canadian children made more co-operative initiations (helping or assisting the peer largely nonverbally) whereas French-Canadian children used more affiliative verbalizations to initiate the interaction. Moreover, Asian-Canadian children initiated more conflictual interactions, during same-ethnic interactions, by taking an object from the other child, and they used more of both submission and counter-attack behaviours than French-Canadian children. Finally, children of both groups showed synchronous activity regardless of the ethnicity of the play partner. Consistent with studies with older children, findings from the present study revealed that the quality of preschoolers' social interactions is influenced by the ethnicity of the playmate.