The association of preschool children's mental representation in the relationship with their parents, teachers and friends with school adjustment

Children's attitudes towards school and their experiences at school form the basis for their future social and academic success. The quality of the relationships that children establish with their parents, teachers, and friends has the potential to affect their entire school experience. In this study, it was aimed to examine the effects of parent-child attachment, teacher-child relations and friendship relations on school adjustment based on ecological and attachment theories and to test a structural model based on system theory framework. In the research planned as a relational screening model, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to model the relationships between observed and latent variables. 91 children attending pre-primary education institutions in the city center of Osmaniye participated in the study. Children's ages ranged from 60-72 months. In the study, the relationship of children with adults and their friends was evaluated using the story completion procedure. Attachment Story Completion Task was used to evaluate parent-child attachment, and Attachment Story Completion Task Q-Sort was used to provide a more systematic and detailed assessment of this test. The children also completed the Teacher-Child Relationship Story Completion Task, Preschool Friendship Story Completion Task. The school adjustment of the children was determined by The School Liking and Avoidance Questionnaire based on the perceptions of the children. The data of the research were collected between September 17, 2018, and December 21, 2019, through interviews with children by the researcher. In the research planned in four different sessions, a total of 364 sessions were held. To evaluate the quality of parent, teacher and friendship relations, the data obtained from interviews with children and recorded by the camera were coded by the researcher and second coders. All the data of the research was transferred to the computer and assumptions of the SEM analysis were tested. Deactivation attachment from parent-child attachment dimensions was not included in the analysis because security and deactivation attachment showed a high correlation. At the same time, hyperactivation attachment dimensions were not determined to be a significant predictor of school adjustment and therefore hyperactivation attachment was not included in the analysis. After these procedures, the fit indices of the models whose hypotheses were created were examined and it was determined that the data fit well with the models. The developed models show that security parent-child attachment, teacher-child relationships, and friendship quality have important effects on school adjustment. security parent-child attachment affects both teacher-child relationships and the quality of friendship. Similarly, it was determined that teacher-child relationships had important effects on the quality of friendship. Additionally, results indicated that security parent-child attachment affected school adjustment through the indirect effect of teacher-child relationships and friendship quality. Findings are discussed within the framework of ecological model, attachment and system theory, considering the relevant literature.