★Outside Influences.
Early social experi ences outside the home are likewise important determinants of what the child's social attitudes and behavior patterns will be. If his relationships with peers and adults outside the home are favorable, he will enjoy social contacts and want to repeat them. If they are unpleasant or frightening, he will want to avoid such contacts in the future, he will develop unfavorable attitudes toward outsiders, and he will fall back on the companionship of family members. If family relationships have been no more pleasurable than contacts with outsiders, however, he will shut himself away from people when ever he can and will become a social isolate.
When a child enjoys social contacts with outsiders, he will want to behave in a manner that will win their approval and acceptance. Even preschool children imitate the patterns of social behavior of their peers in their attempts to gain social acceptance. Among older children, the influence of the peer group is greater because the desire for social acceptance is stronger.
"If a child's playmates are older than he, he strives to keep up with them and, as a result, develops more mature patterns of behavior. If the older children are bossy, he may not find his contacts with them pleasant; he will then choose younger children as his playmates, bossing them as the older children have tried to boss him. When his play mates or siblings are all of his own sex, he often has difficulty in making good social adjustments with playmates of the opposite sex. Although early social contacts outside the home are often characterized by fighting, preschool children usually show more effectionate than aggressive responses to their playmates. The satisfaction the child derives from his early social experiences encourages him to seek further contacts outside the home.
The child's basic social attitudes toward people in general, toward certain people or certain social groups, and toward social life as an experience—are greatly influenced by the peer group. These attitudes are learned, to some extent, at home but they can be changed as a result of the child's experiences with the peer group. Each year, his desire for status in the group grows, and his attitudes are increasingly in fluenced by pressures from the group.
★Consistency of Behavior and Attitudes.
Established patterns of social behavior and social attitudes tend to remain consistent. While any change is likely to be slight, attitudes are less subject to change than be behavior patterns. To determine how consistent the social behavior established in early childhood is, attempts have been made to discover whether the child's adjustments improve with age. A follow-up study of a group of 21 kindergarten children revealed that, 10 years after the original study, 10 had improved their social adjustment, 10 had remained the same, and 1 had declined slightly.
Studies of adolescents and adults have revealed how consistent early childhood Patterns of social participation remain. Children whose early social experiences were unfavorable tend to participate less in group activities than those who had favorable early experiences. Because there is a close relationship between a child's liking for social activities and how much other children like and accept him, those children who make good social adjustments from the start derive the most enjoyment from social participation. Popular children become more active participants in school and extracurricular affairs during their high-school and college years and in community affairs during adult hood than the unpopular.
By the end of childhood, the child has absorbed many social attitudes from his parents, teachers, and peer group; from his personal experiences; and from radio, television, books, and other media of mass communication. Unless he discovers that poor social attitudes will make him unpopular, he is not likely to consciously try to develop favorable attitudes or change unfavorable ones already established. The child who at an early age develops a fondness for another child, for example, will continue to cling to that child even when parents and teachers try to persuade him that the child is not a "good influence". Prejudice—dislike for a group of people because of their race, religion, or socioeconomic status—is also persistent once it is established. Similarly, the child who voluntarily isolates himself from other children because of unsatisfying early experiences is not easily persuaded that he could "have more fun" if he played with other children. These points will be discussed in more detail later in this chapter and in the following chapter.
In summary, then, the importance of laying good foundations in the early years is apparent. As Bain has said, "When the child enters school, he begins to reap the rewards or suffer the ills which flow from the first six years of life". If his home has done a good job, the child can adjust to others and to social patterns easily and adequately. He is not forced to learn the hard way. He knows what to expect, and he is prepared to evaluate the new social realities he will meet. The child who gets off to a bad start, on the other hand, acquires a reputation that follows him from class to class. The result is that he is likely to continue to make poor social adjustments unless he receives some help in improving the poor foundations established in his early childhood days in the home.