ROPER, R., and HINDE, R. A. Social Behavior in a Play Group: Consistency and Complexity. CmLD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 570-579. The behavior of 38-58-month-old children in a village play group showed considerable consistency from 1 half term to the next, from 1 term to the next, and between situations (indoor classroom and outdoor playground). A principal components analysis with varimax rotation on 4 sets of data gave in each case 1 factor concerned with how interactively children play when with other children, 1 with how much they play on their own, and 1 with how much they are unoccupied. The 3 factors appear to represent a breakdown of the first social factor in the previous studies of Connolly, Blurton Jones, Smith, and Smith and Connolly. The usefulness of the concept of participation is questioned.
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Roper et al. (1978) studied this question.
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