Investigation of the relationship between independent learning behaviors and self-care skills of 3-5 year-old children

The purpose of this study is to examine whether there is a relationship between the independent learning behaviors and self-care skills of preschool children aged 3-5. It is also to examine whether the independent learning and self-care skills of children differ significantly according to their gender, age group, number of siblings and educational status of parents. The study group consists of 318 children aged 3-5 living in Kütahya province. The data of the study were collected using the "Personal Information Form", "Independent Learning Behavior Scale (3-5 years)" and "Self-Care Skills Scale for Preschool Children (36-72 months) Teacher Form". Skewness-kurtosis values were examined to test the normality of the data. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to check whether the data were suitable for normal distribution. Since the data did not show a normal distribution, nonparametric tests were used, Mann-Whitney U test was used in two-group comparisons, and Kruskall-Wallis H test was used in three or more group comparisons. The relationship between variables was examined with Spearman rank number correlation analysis. The significance level was taken as 0.05. As a result of the analyses; a positive and significant relationship was found between independent learning behaviors and self-care skills. When the correlations between variables were examined, a significant relationship was found according to the number of siblings and age groups, but no significant relationship was found according to gender and parents' education level.