The role of tempemental characteristics and parental attitudes in preschool children's emotion expression skills

The aim of this study is to examine the role of child temperament characteristics and parental attitudes on emotion expression skills among preschool children. The research sample consists of 249 parents (205 biological mothers, 44 biological fathers) with children aged between three to six. Within the scope of the research, the participants were reached through online surveys. Data collection tools were "Sociodemographic Information Form" prepared by the researcher to collect demographic information of children and parents, "Child Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ)" to measure temperamental characteristics of the children, "Parental Attitude Scale" to measure the parents' attitudes and "Child Emotional Expression Scale", which was also prepared by the researcher, to measure emotion expression skills of children. Regression analyses were applied to examine the role of child temperament and parental attitudes on children's emotion expression skills. The results of this study showed that the democratic attitude, which is one of the parental attitudes, is related to higher expression of both positive and negative emotions. In addition, it has been seen that those children with higher perceptual sensitivity temperament express higher positive and negative emotions, while children with low reactivity and high soothability temperament were observed to have greater skills to express positive emotions and feelings of anxiety.