The present study investigated the effects of gender, pair type, and adult supervision on the type of play of 32 preschool children. The children were assigned to same sex or different sex pairs and allowed to play with a variety of toys for approximately 10 minutes. Each pair was observed and videotaped, once with a familiar adult present and once with that adult absent. The videos were coded according to positive or negative, cooperative, parallel or independent play. The results indicate that children engage in more positive behaviors when an adult is absent. Boy-boy pairs tend to engage in more cooperative play; girl-girl pairs engage in more parallel play; and boy-girl pairs engage in more independent play.

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