title: Preschool children's attachment security is associated with their sharing with others.
abstract: The current study examined relations between preschool children's attachment pattern and their sharing behavior. To this end, 26 German children aged five years (15 girls) were first administered an Attachment Story Completion Task to assess their attachment pattern and the degree of their attachment security. Immediately thereafter, they participated in an established paradigm, a mini-dictator game, that assessed their inclination to share costly as well as noncostly with a friend, a disliked other, and a stranger. Analyses showed that degree of attachment security was positively correlated with children's generosity towards a disliked other and their inclination to engage in costly sharing. Moreover, the absence of an organized attachment pattern was related to a general decrease in generosity towards all recipients. The results point to the functional role of children's attachment for the early development of sharing behavior.
authors.affiliation: a Department Psychology , Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München , Munich , Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Paulus
authors.affiliation: a Department Psychology , Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München , Munich , Germany.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.affiliation: b Section for Early Intervention and Special Needs Education , Ludwigsburg University of Education , Ludwigsburg , Germany.
authors.forename: Annemarie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scheub
authors.affiliation: b Section for Early Intervention and Special Needs Education , Ludwigsburg University of Education , Ludwigsburg , Germany.
authors.forename: Lilith
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: König
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009769:Object Attachment; D010379:Peer Group; D010988:Play and Playthings / Q000523:psychology*; D066107:Social Skills; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Attachment; friendship; peer relations; prosocial development; sharing