Continuity and Stability in Early Social Development1,2

A short-term longitudinal study of 38 middle-class nursery school children investigated the dimensionality, continuity, and stability of early social behavior. Factor analyses successfully ordered individual differences in each of four successive semesters of nursery school attendance. The most continuous and stable dimension throughout this period was Interpersonal vs. Impersonal Orientation. Interpersonal children also tended to be negative in attitude, whereas impersonal children were likely to be positive. There was evidence for a developmental transformation during the fourth semester when the previously interpersonal-negative child became poised, while his previously impersonal-positive counterpart became socially insecure.