Investigation of social competence and behavior of 36-66 months children: The case of Cappadocia

In this study, it was aimed to show the relationship and predictivity levels among social skills, problematic behaviour together with social competence and behaviour by examining social skills, problematic behaviours and social competence and behaviours of 36-66-month-old children according to some parameters. The screening model from the quantitative research methods was used in the research. 44 teachers from the kindergartens attached to MoNE within the boundaries of the Cappadocia Region (Nevşehir, Niğde, Aksaray, Kayseri Kırşehir) who participated in the research voluntarily, filled in the measurement tools for each child in their class and those 594 pre-school children in total were the sampling group of the research. As a means of data collection in research; a "Personal Information Form" which was designed by the researcher herself to determine the socio-demographic characteristics of the children, the "Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales" consisting of two independent scales that are the "Social Skill Scale" and the "Problem Behavior Scale" which was developed by Merrell (1994) and tested by Özbey and Alisinanoğlu (2009) on its reliability and validity and finally the "Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation-30" scale which was developed by LaFreniere and Dumas in 1996 and adapted by the researcher to the Turkish culture were used. For SCBE-30, the Cronbach Alpha general reliability coefficient was calculated as α = .889; Cronbach Alpha α = .867 for the "Anger / Aggression" dimension, Cronbach Alpha α = .831 for the "Social Competence" dimension, and Cronbach Alpha α =. 648 values for the "Anxiety / Withdrawal". In addition, a confirmatory factor analysis was performed to determine whether the factorial structure of the original form of the SCBE-30 scale was confirmed in the Turkish study group or not and the first-level factorial structure of SCBE-30 scale that consists of 3 sub-dimensions and 30 items (10 items for anger / aggression dimension, 10 for social competence and 10 for anxiety / withdrawal) was tested using the LISREL 9.1 (Scientific Software International) program. After these validity and reliability analyses, it was determined that SCBE-30 scale used in the research is valid and reliable. In the analysis of the obtained data, SPSS 20 package program was used; frequency and percentage distributions were taken; independent samples t-tests, one way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were used. As a result of research findings; there were identified to be some significant differences in terms of social skills, problem behaviour, social competence and behaviour levels according to gender, age, mother's education level, father's education level, family income level and number of siblings. There were monitored to be a moderate, negative and significant relationship between social skills and problem behaviours of 36-66-month-old children. It was found that there were meaningful relations between social skill and the score of the subscales of the SCBE-30 scale that are anger / aggression, social competence, and anxiety / withdrawal. It was also found that there were meaningful relations between problematic behaviour and the score of the subscales of the SCBE-30 scale that are anger / aggression, social competence, and anxiety / withdrawal.