The relationship between emotion regulation skills and problematic behaviors of 3-6 years-old children with mother's personality structure

Problem behaviors are behaviors that harm the individual and his/her environment and cause the individual to stay out of social environments because they are inconsistent with the social values of the society in which they live. Emotion regulation, on the other hand, refers to a person's external and internal processes that are responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional responses. It is known that emotion regulation skills begin to develop from early childhood. In the preschool period, where development and learning are extremely rapid, development is under the influence of environmental factors, especially parental behaviors and family environment. Parents influence their children's behavior and emotion regulation skills through hereditary factors as well as personality traits and parenting attitudes. When the current literature was reviewed, it was found that studies examining children's problem behaviors and emotion regulation skills according to various variables. There are also studies in the literature examining the relationship between the mother's personality traits and the problematic behaviors of the children, and the relationship between the mother's personality structure and the child's emotion regulation skills, but no study was found in which the relationship between the mother's personality traits and the child's emotion regulation skills and problematic behaviors were examined together and included children aged 3-6 years. In our current study, we aimed to examine the relationship between the problematic behavior and emotion regulation skills of the preschool children in the 3-6 age group with the personality traits of the mothers, with each other and with the sociodemographic data, and the relationship between the personality traits of the mothers and the sociodemographic data. The sample of our study consists of 632 children and their mothers who accepted to participate in the study and filled out the online questionnaire completely. Socio-demographic Data Form, Preschooland Kindergarden Behaviour Scales (PKBS–2), Emotion Regulation Checlist (ERC) and Big Five Inventory (BFI) were filled in by the mothers participating in the study. 52.1% of the children participating in our study were boy, and the mean age was 53.82 ± 11.12 months. In our study, between all PKBS–2 total and sub-scores and all ERC total and sub-scores; excluding children's PKBS–2 Externalizing Problems scores, mother's BFI Extraversion scores, and children's PKBS–2 Antisocial scores, and mother's BFI Openness scores; a correlation was found between all the other PKBS–2 total and sub-scores of the children, and all ERC total and sub-scores of the children, and all the mother's BFI scores. In our study, it was determined that the children's total ERC scores and the mother's BFI Extraversion and Openness scores positively affected the children's PKBS–2 Total Social Skill scores. The age of the child and the age of the mother also affect the PKBS–2 Total Social Skill scores positively. The fact that the child is boy has a negative effect on the Total Social Skills scores of PKBS–2. Children's ERC total scores and mother's BFI Extraversion scores have a negative effect on children's PKBS–2 Problem Behavior Total Score. Additionally, as mother's Neuroticism scores increase, children's problem behavior scores increase. It has been determined that problematic behavior is more common in boys and in families where the education level of the mother is higher, and the problematic behavior decreases as the child's age increases. It was observed that children's PKBS–2 Problem Behavior Total scores had a negative effect on their ERC total scores, while their PKBS–2 Social Skills Total scores had a positive effect. It was observed that the mother's BFI Extraversion and Neuroticism scores had a negative effect on their ERC total scores. Finally, it was found that as the age of the child increases, total ERC scores decrease, and as the age of the mother increases, total ERC scores increase. As a result, in our study, preschool children's problem behaviors and emotion regulation skills were found to be associated with some sociodemographic variables; it has also been determined that preschool children's problem behaviors and emotion regulation skills mutually influence each other and are also affected by some personality characteristics of the mother. Knowing these risk factors can enable early intervention and development of awareness and support programs for mothers.