Young Children's Perception of Peers’ Social and Solitary Preferences in Italy.

Recent studies from late childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood (e.g., Coplan et al., 2021; Yang et al., 2023) found that some withdrawn children may perceive that they are not spending enough time alone and be dissatisfied with their experiences of solitude (i.e., aloneliness; Coplan et al., 2019). Other socially withdrawn children may perceive that they are spending too much time alone and are dissatisfied with their network of social relationships (i.e., loneliness; Perlman & Peplau, 1981). To date, no study has investigated aloneliness in the preschool period. The present study aimed to explore young children's perceptions and beliefs toward different social preferences (i.e., aloneliness, loneliness, unsociability, sociability). Participants were N = 117 children (n = 59 girls, 50.4%) aged 36 –77 months (M = 54.88, SD =10.78) attending different preschools in Italy. Children were individually interviewed and asked (based on Graham & Hoehn, 1995; Zava et al., 2019), with the help of specially created vignettes about hypothetical peers displaying different social preferences (i.e., alonely, lonely, unsociable, sociable). Results from repeated measure ANOVAs show that children rate the hypothetical alonely peer as having the lowest social motivations and the lonely and sociable peers as having the lowest alone motivations. Lower levels of affiliative preference (how children want to play and be friends with hypothetical peers) were found toward both hypothetical alonely and unsociable peers. No differences between vignettes were found regarding social standing (how children think their friends want to play with hypothetical peers) and teachers' relationships. Finally, sociable peers receive lower sympathy compared to lonely peers. Some age and gender differences were also found. These findings suggest that young children in Italy have an understanding of the different aspects that characterize peers' social preferences.