Psychological Development and Education ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (3): 305-314.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.03.01

   

Social Mindfulness Preference of Preschool Young Children in Peer Selection from the Perspective of Traits

TAN Ruifeng1,2, CHEN Suiqing1, GUO Xinying1, LI Mengna1   

  1. 1. School of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006;
    2. School of Education, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631
  • Published:2026-05-15

Abstract: Social mindfulness, as an independent trait dimension, may influence preschool children’s peer selection and preferences. This study investigated 6-year-old preschool young children’s cognitive preferences between social mindfulness and three general traits—warmth, morality, and competence—in peer selection, through three experiments involving social mindfulness understanding task and situational traits stories. The results showed: (1) Compared to optimistic/active traits, preschool young children demonstrate a higher cognitive preference for social mindfulness in peer selection; (2) Children’s cognitive preference for social mindfulness in peer selection is significantly lower than that for the sincere/integrity traits; (3) Children’s cognitive preference for social mindfulness is significantly higher than that for the intelligent traits. These experimental results indicated that social mindfulness, which mainly characterized by the intent of prosocial altruism, is relatively independent of the three general qualities of warmth, morality, and competence. Furthermore, social mindfulness could influence the social cognition and peer impression evaluation of young children, which is of great significance for understanding early childhood trait cognition and social interaction.

Key words: social mindfulness, traits, young children, peer selection

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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