Reflection of peer relations in paintings of children aged 5-6

Purpose: It is to examine the peer relations reflected in the paintings of children aged 5-6. Materials and Methods: 180 children aged 5-6 in preschool education institutions in 2018-2019 school year in Malatya city center were included. "Personal Information Form", "Ladd and Profilet Child Behavior Scale" were used for data collection and paintings of the first 30 children were used in the CBS score ranking. Mixed Research Method was used in the study. NCSS program was used to analyze the quantitative data. The suitability of the data for normal distribution was tested with Shapiro-Wilk test and graphical analyses. Independent samples t-test was used to compare the normal distribution of quantitative variables between two groups. Kruskal-Wallis test and Dunn-Bonferroni test were used for intergroup comparison of quantitative variables not normally distributed. Content Analysis was used for the qualitative data. Results: It was seen that there was no significant difference in the total score of the CBS according to gender and age, the number of siblings, the order of children, and the family's economic level were effective. In the CBS score ranking of the first 30 children, it was seen that the children whose prosocial behaviours were prominent were loved by their peers as reflected in their paintings with various figures and positions, and the children who showed aggressive behaviours and thus were externalized and who had anxiety/fear were left alone in their paintings as reflected in the sharp line drawings and figures. It was observed that hyperactive children hastily drew by leaving halfway or overflowed out of the drawing. The qualitative data available corresponds to the quantitative data. Conclusion: The peer relations reflected in the paintings are generally compatible with the scale and field studies. It was seen that the children who received high scores in the prosocial area did not draw themselves alone and wanted to use figure diversity, while aggressive, externalized and hyperactive children who had anxiety/fear used dominant, sharp pencil strokes or paper upright and did not draw themselves in the painting. Keywords: peer relations, early childhood, painting