Relationship between social adaptation of children and parent's social problem - solving skills

This study was intended to examine the relation between the parents' social problem-solving skills and children's skills in social adaptation. The research data were obtained from parents and 92 children (6 years old) who pursue their education at independent kindergartens in the central towns in Antalya. In the study, "The Demographical Information Form" was used to take information about the children and families. In order to determine the children's social adaptation and skills the "Social Adaptation and Skill Scale" has been adapted to Turkish by Işık (2007), and to determine parents' social problem-solving skills, the "Inventory for Social Problem-Solving" (ISPS), which has been adapted by Duyan and Gelbal (2008) were used. IBM SPSS 22 was used in entry, analysis and classification of the data and percentage, mean and standard deviation were calculated according to variable types. To identify the question whether a significant difference exists between variables, statistical analyses of T and F were employed, and also the simple Pearson Correlation Analysis was used to detect any possible relation between the variables. According to the results of the research, an increase at the level of parent's problem-solving skills is associated with an increase at children's level of social inadaptation. In regard to parents scores on Parents Inventory for Social Problem-Solving, the children's scores on social inadaptation go up as the mothers' cognitive direction towards the problem, definition of problem and decision-making points increase, and on the other hand, as the definition scores of fathers go up, an increase on the scores of children's adaptation was seen (p>.005). It was also found that as the education level of parents get higher, the scores of children on social adaptation are affected by this in a positive way. As far as the findings are concerned, it can also be assumed that the variables of gender, existence of a sibling and the person who gives childcare make no significant difference in terms of child's social adaptation or inadaptation. Key Words: Social Problem-Solving, Social Adaptation and Skill, Social Development, Interaction Between Child and Family