Developmental changes in the nature and function of social dominance among young children

Primate models of group social organization stress that dominant individuals receive more positive social behavior than other group members [Chance:Man 2:503–518 (1967); Seyfarth: Journal of Theoretical Biology 65:671–698 (1977)]. Such views suggest that short-term functions of dominance include the regulation of cohesive behavior, as well as the control of group conflict. However, this model has not been examined from a developmental perspective. In the present study, ten groups of children, who ranged in age from 8 to 66 months, were observed using both focal individual and matrix completion procedures. Social sequences were described according to a preestablished taxonomy of agonistic and affiliative actions. Agonistic exchanges ending with submission revealed linear dominance hierarchies at all age levels. In each group, certain children attracted more affiliative activities, and thus appeared as more popular individuals. However, affiliative gestures were distributed according to dominance status only at the two older age levels. Findings indicate that social dominance is developmentally the earliest stable dimension of peer group social organization and that cohesive activities are coordinated with dominance status toward the end of the preschool period.