The power of social problem solving skills of 60-72 months children to predict their loneliness and social satisfaction: The example of Mersin province

In this study, it was aimed to determine the predictive power of social problem solving skills of 60-72 month old children on loneliness and social dissatisfaction levels and to examine these two variables according to some factors. The study group consisted of 70 children aged between 60-72 months living in two districts of Mersin province. "Personal Information Form", "Wally Social Problem Solving Test" and "Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Scale for 60-72 Months-Old Children" were used to collect data in the research. The participants' social problem solving skills and levels of loneliness and social dissatisfaction were examined according to gender, duration of pre-school education, education status of parents and number of siblings. In order to determine the distribution of the data obtained through the scales, the skewness and kurtosis coefficients, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test results and the graphs related to the distribution of the data were examined and in line with the results, Mann Whitney-U test, Kruskal-Wallis analysis method, Spearman correlation coefficient and simple linear regression were used. According to the findings, it was seen that the social problem solving levels of the participants showed a significant difference according to gender and this difference was in favor of the girls. Social problem solving levels did not differ significantly according to duration of pre-school education, educational status of parents and number of siblings; it was seen that the levels of loneliness and social dissatisfaction did not differ significantly according to gender, duration of pre-school education, education status of parents and number of siblings. However, it has been understood that social problem solving skills have the power to predict loneliness and social dissatisfaction levels. In line with these findings, some suggestions for future studies are presented.