Abstract
The goals of this research were to assess how and when children form relationships during the transition to preschool, and to determine whether or not prior friends and acquaintances affected their social networks. Mutual interactions were observed during free play and scored for continuously showing-up times and the time duration of interactions. Relationship measures were collected for eight 4 year-old children between April (beginning of school year) and October. The first three months after the transition to preschool appeared to be the key period for predicting whether a newly-enrolled preschooler would have reciprocal relationships. The influence on social network formation of prior friends lasted longer than that of prior acquaintances, but both types of prior relationships affected the children's social networks initially in the transition to preschool.
