A Comparison of Aspects of Social Skills Development to Build Friendships as Portrayed in Thai and American Award Winning Children’s Books

Abstract

friendship roles as portrayed in books for preschoolers. The criterion for selecting materials used in this study was threefold. Firstly, the 120 books were children’s literature award winners published in the United States or Thailand from 1996-2016. The awards considered for this study included the Caldecott,
Coretta Scott King, the Notable Children’s Book Awards (US.), the Wankeaw, Nanmee, Nai-In Book Awards (Thai), the Office of Basic Education Commission (OBEC) Award, and other highly recommended books for preschool children. Secondly, the books were developmentally and culturally appropriate when adults were interactively reading with preschool and kindergarten children (ages 3-6). Lastly, content of the books portrayed children’s friendship roles, and/or animal characteristics demonstrating friendships. To gather data, the Children’s Book Evaluation Form (updated August, 2016) was used to evaluate the content of each book in these areas: language, genre, setting, plot, theme, writing style, illustrations, behaviors, and feelings as depicted. The form also recorded bibliographical details, book details, types of friendships, story elements, and recommendations. The children’s literature evaluations were coded and analyzed
using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 22.0 (SPSS). Findings revealed that certain positive behaviors and pro-social skills were necessary to build and maintain friendships, for example, helping, sharing, spending time together, face to face communication , and the acceptance of others, etc. In the
development of friendships, the results indicated that certain psychological states, like happiness, satisfaction, empathy, sympathy, closeness, and affection were strengthene