Children's Sharing Behavior With an Unfamiliar Peer Across Repeated Social Interactions

We examined children's patterns of sharing behavior with a peer across repeated social interactions. Children aged 9-12 years old (N = 186; M = 10.72 years, SD = 1.09; 108 females; 75.7% White) were matched with a same-age, same-sex, unfamiliar peer, and the dyad completed structured and unstructured tasks during three online sessions across 1 month. At the end of each session, children independently and anonymously participated in a task to assess sharing behavior with their interaction partner. We found evidence for three patterns of sharing behavior across the sessions: fair sharers (45.2%), minimal sharers (44.6%), and increasing sharers (10.2%). We examined how children's own traits and social perceptions of their peer's traits predicted sharing behavior. Children who were rated by their parents as lower in temperamental affiliation and children who perceived their social partner as higher in negative traits were likely to share minimally with their peer across sessions. Further, children who were rated by their parents as higher in temperamental shyness and children who perceived their social partner as higher in shy/nervous traits were likely to increase the number of tickets they shared with their peer across sessions. These findings illustrate that children's sharing behavior with an initially unfamiliar peer is related to their own traits and their perception of the recipient and may change over the course of repeated social interactions. These patterns may be driven by differences in social-affiliative goals based on temperament and unfolding social dynamics.