Investigation of 5-year-old children's prosocial behaviors and self-regulation skills in a longitudinal design

In this study, the relationships between self-regulation skills and prosocial behaviors of preschool children were examined in a longitudinal design. The literature reveals that self-regulation skills and prosocial behaviors are among the important developmental tasks in early childhood. The sample of the study consisted of 482 children attending preschool education in Midyat District Center of Mardin. The data were obtained with the help of "Self-Regulation Skills Scale for 4-6 Year Old Children (Teacher Form)" and "Child Prosociality Scale". Children's self-regulation skills and prosocial behaviors were assessed by their teachers at two different time periods. The first measurement was conducted in October-November 2022 and the second measurement was conducted in June 2023. Since the data obtained did not show normal distribution, they were analyzed with the help of "Mann Whitney U test", "Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test" and logistic regression model. The results of the study revealed that the mean prosocial behavior scores of preschool children differed significantly according to gender variable only in the first measurement. On the other hand, when the second measurement prosocial behavior averages of the children were taken into consideration, it was seen that girls recorded higher scores than boys, but this difference was not statistically significant. According to another result obtained, it was seen that the mean prosocial behavior scores of preschool children made a statistically significant progress from the first to the second measurement. According to the last result of the study, the predictors affecting the likelihood of children being in the high-level prosocial behavior group were inhibitory control and attention. The results obtained were discussed within the scope of the related literature and suggestions were presented for both practitioners and researchers. Keywords: Preschool children, Prosocial behavior, Self-regulation, Longitudinal design.