There is also a lack of studies on how children's use of laughter may vary depending on the type of recipient (children or adults). It can therefore be assumed that the children's peer group constitutes a significant social and developmental arena ( Blum-Kulka et al., 2004 Danby and Theobald, 2012 Cekaite et al., 2014). Such institutions are different from homes both in the activities and institutional roles involved, and they represent inherently multiparty settings, where a large number of children spend time together. However, little research, and especially, research that attends in detail to the social characteristics of laughter and emotion sharing, is available on children's laughter in contexts other than homes, although an increasing group of children worldwide spend a large part of their everyday life in early childhood education institutions. Laughter is associated with social relational work, and, what we call “emotion sharing” in that it displays an emotional stance toward a particular focus of concern, and invites the interlocutor response and stance ( Goodwin et al., 2012 see also Ruusuvuori, 2013). Studies, taking a social perspective on emotions, show that its occurrence, form and meaning are shaped deeply by the presence of others, roles, relationships, activities, and other contextual features ( Glenn, 2003). Nevertheless, laughter is, as any other expression of emotion, a significant feature of social life, and its occurrence and use by children is guided by various normative expectations and local values ( Dunn, 2003 Cekaite, 2018). Of course, laughter occurs for various reasons, not all of which are associated with funniness and humor. It is argued that laughter is strongly social in inviting the others to attend to and share a particular emotional stance ( Jefferson et al., 1987). Even very young children laugh, smile, and enjoy playful and humorous events ( McGhee, 1989 Dunn, 2003) and there are many funny and entertaining elements and activities in children's everyday lives. Laughter is a mundane phenomenon and an expression of emotion that is ubiquitous in social life. By deploying multiple methods, the present study points to the importance of viewing emotion and norm sharedness in social interaction not just as a matter of communicating an emotion from one person to another, but as an intricate process of inviting the others into or negotiating the common emotional and experiential ground. Overall, the study shows that intergenerational reciprocal laughter was a rare occurrence and suggests that laughter between generations is interesting in that it can be seen as indicative of how children and adults handle alterity in their everyday life. Children primarily sought and received affiliation through laughter in the peer group, and the adults were often focused on the institutional and educational goals of the preschool. The qualitative interaction analysis shows that children and adults exhibited different patterns of laughter. Eighty seven percent of children's laughter was directed to other children, and adults directed their laughter to other adults 2.7 times as often as to children. It was found that children's laughter tended to be directed to children and adults' laughter tended to be directed to adults. Methodologically, the study makes use of mixed methods: it uses descriptive statistics that identify prevalent patterns in laughter practices and, on the basis of these results, examines social-interactional situations of children's laughter in detail. Theoretically, the study answers the call for sociocultural approaches that contextualize children's everyday social interaction, e.g., in different institutions or homes, to study the diverse conditions society forms for learning, sociality, and socialization and development of shared norms. The research questions concern: who laughs with whom how do adults respond to children's laughter, and what characterizes the social situations in which laughter is used and reciprocated. It examines and discusses typical laughter patterns and their functions with a particular focus on children's and intergenerational (child-adult/educator) laughter in early education context. The present study investigates how laughter features in the everyday lives of 3–5-year old children in Swedish preschools.
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