Investigation of the relationship between perspective taking skills and behavioral problems of 5-6 years-old children

In this study, it was aimed to examine the relationship between the perspective taking skills and behavioral problems of 5-6 year old preschool children. The study group of the research consisted of 276 children age 5-6 yeas studying in preschool education institutions affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the province of Burdur in the 2020-2021 academic year. As data collection tools in the research; "Perspective Taking Test for Children (PTC)" and "Pre-School Behavior Problems Screening Scale (PBQ) " and a personel information from prepared by the researcher were used. In the analysis of data; ın order to examine the normality values of the data, the kurtosis-skewness values were checked. According to this; It was determined that the data belonging to the Perspective Taking Test for Children scale showed normal distribution, but the data of the Preschool Behavior Problems Screening Scale did not show normal distribution. T-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the perspective taking skills of children according to some variables (gender, age, nuber of siblings, birth order, parental education level). In addition, the Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis-H analysis were used to analyze the behavior problems of children according to some variables (gender, age, number of siblings, birth order, parental education level and mother employment status). Finally, Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between perspective taking skills and behavioral problems of 5-6 year old children. According to the results of the research; children's perspective taking skills differ significantly according to gender, age, sibling order and birt order variables. In addition, children's behavior problems differ significantly according to the gender variable. According to another result obtained from the research; ıt was found that the relationship between children's behavior problem levels and perspective taking levels was low, negative and statiscally significant. According to this result obtained in the research; children with perspective taking skills show fewer behavioral problems. Determining the relationship betweeen children's perspective taking skills and behavioral problems is considered important in terms of raising awareness and is thought that the research will benefit other studies in the related field.