The relationship between the separation anxiety of children who have a new beginning of preschool education and the concerns of their mothers

This study aims to examine the relationship between separation anxiety of children who have just started preschool education and their mothers' anxiety. In the study, it was investigated whether the separation anxiety of children and the anxiety of mothers changed according to the gender of the children and the education status of the mother according to gender, age, number of siblings, mother's age, mother's education level, mother's employment status and family's socio-economic level. This research was carried out as a quantitative study in relational scanning model. The sample of the study consists of a total of 252 people, including 120 children attending pre-school education institutions affiliated to the National Education Directorate in Bursa in the 2019-2020 academic year, and their mothers and 12 preschool teachers. "Separation Anxiety Scale for Kindergarten Children Mother-Father Form" and "State-Trait Anxiety Scale (STAI-I and STAI-II Anxiety Scale)" were applied to the mothers who participated in the study. In addition, the teachers of 120 children who were included in the scope of the study filled in the "Separation Anxiety Scale for Kindergarten Children Teacher Form" for each children who have a new beginning of preschool education included in this study. With the support of the school administration, "Personal Information Form" was filled out by families in order to determine the demographic characteristics of the mother and child. The analysis of the data obtained from the study was carried out with the SPSS 22 Package Program. According to the results of the study, no relationship was found between separation anxiety of children who started preschool education and their mothers' anxiety. In addition, it was determined that the child separation anxiety score varied according to the variables of the number of siblings, the employment status of the mothers and the socio-economic levels of the families. It was found that the trait anxiety of mothers differed according to their educational status. Keywords: Separation anxiety, anxiety, newly starting school, preschool education