Investigating the peer relations and the social skills of the preschool children coming from divorced families

This study has been conducted to examine and reveal the divorce processes of the parents of the preschool children coming from divorced families, the relations with their children in this process, the social skills and peer relations of these children after one and a half year from the divorce, and the activities the teacher do in order to develop the social skills and peer relations of these children. The participants of this study, which is conducted in the style of case study, one of the quantitative research methods, consist of 5 children (three females, two males) whose parents had divorced within the past one and a half year, with the age of 5-6, attending 3 independent Preschools connected to the Ministry of the National Education in Cukurova and Yuregir Counties of the City of Adana, in 2013-2014 Academic Year, and their mothers, the father of one of the children, and the teachers of these children. The Sociometry and Peer Evaluation, which are applied to determine the social positions of the children in their classes have been used in collecting the data of the study. The 'Gazi Early Childhood Development Evaluation Tool' (GECDA) has been made use of in determining the development levels of the students; and the 'Kinetic Family Drawing' has been used in defining the family perceptions and the roles within the families. Each of the children was observed in their classroom in terms of their social skills and peer relations, and the data of the study were obtained via semi-structured interviews with the parents and teachers. Descriptive analysis and content analysis have been made use of in analyzing the data of the study. The results of the study have been discussed in the context of Feminist Theory. In this context, it has been concluded that social gender roles are definitive in continuing the marriage in the society. With the divorce, it has been evaluated that the increase in the responsibilities of women as well as their responsibilities about their children stemmed from the father's going away from the home. It has been concluded that divorce decreases their interactions with their children and depending on this, the responsibilities of the father decreases; however, the relations of the fathers with their sons is encouraged after the divorce, and this implies that there is a cultural role for the purpose of conveying the dominance of the men from fathers to sons. With the divorce, it has been observed that children have difficulties in adapting themselves to the change of the roles of their parents within the family, and they might show reactions to the mother, who tries to overtake the authoritative role of the father after the divorce in raising the dependent children in patriarchal societies. It has also been concluded that the children directed their dependent behaviors to their teachers with the destruction of their interactions with their parents. It has been observed that teachers do not tell the problems of the children related with the divorce to their parents, and worry that this might be an intervention to their privacy.