The investigation of the relation between the social emotional adaptation of the 60-72 months old children and the emotional intelligence of their mothers

The aim of this research is to investigate the relation between the social emotional adaptation of the 60-72 months old children, who attend preschool education, and the emotional intelligence levels of their mothers. Within the sub-problems whether the emotional intelligence level of the mothers differentiate or not according to education status, working status and socio economic condition. In addition whether the social emotional adaptation levels of children differentiate or not according to the gender of the children, the socio economic status of the families of the children, working conditions of the mothers and their education status was researched. The sample of the research consists of totally 262 people; 131 children, who attend preschool education institutions of the Ministry of National Education in Bursa within and their mothers. The Bar-On Emotional Intelligence Scale (Bar-On EQ) was carried out on the mothers. In order to evaluate the social-emotional adaptation levels of the children the preschool teachers participated in the research, filled the Marmara Social-Emotional Adaptation Scale (MASDU) for 60-72 Months Old Children for each child who participated in the research. Having support from the school administration in order to determine the demographic needs of the mother and the child the families were asked to fill a Personal Information Form. The data obtained from the study was analysed through SPSS 22 package program. There was no relationship between emotional intelligence levels of mothers and social emotional adaptation of children. According to the result of the research statistically a significant relation was found between Impulse Control, which is one of the sub-dimensions of the emotional intelligence scale applied to the mothers, and the total scores of Social Emotional Adaptation Scale (MASDU), which was applied to the children. This relation is weak and has a positive correlation (r=0,199). Statistically a significant relation was found between Impulse Control and the "Behaving Appropriately for the Requirements of the Social Life" sub-dimension scores of the MASDU scale. This relation is weak and has a positive correlation (r=0,184). Statistically a significant relation was found between Impulse Control, which is one of the sub-dimensions of the emotional intelligence scale, and "Reacting Appropriately for the Social Status" sub-dimension scores of the MASDU scale. This relation is weak and has a positive correlation (r=0,186). Statistically a significant relation was found between Endurance for Stress sub-dimension scores of the emotional intelligence scale applied to the mothers and the scores of the "Behaving Appropriately for the Requirements of the Social Life" sub-dimension, which belongs to the social emotional adaptation scale (MASDU). This relation is weak and has a positive correlation (r=0,205). Statistically a significant relation was found between the Independence sub-dimension scores of the emotional intelligence scale applied to the mothers and the scores "Behaving Appropriately for the Requirements of the Social Life" which is one of the sub-dimension of the social emotional adaptation scale (MASDU) applied to the children. This relation is weak and has a positive correlation (r=0,185). Some differences were recognised within the emotional intelligence scale sub-dimensions applied to the mothers considering the working conditions of the mothers, socio- economic status of the family, however a significant difference was not found according to the education status of the mothers. Certain differences were seen within the social emotional adaptation scale scores of the child, according to the gender of the child and the socio-economic status of the family. It was determined that the social emotional adaptation of the child did not differentiate according to the working conditions of the mother. Keywords: Emotional intelligence of the mother, preschool education, social-emotional adjustment.