A study about effects of attachment styles on social behaviors during preschool period

The purpose of the study is to determine attachment styles of preschool children and to examine effects of these on their social behaviors. At the same time, attachment styles and social behaviors at preschool period will be studied in terms of various demographic variables. Correlational model was adopted for the study. Working population of the study contains preschool children who continue to public and private preschools at İstanbul-Pendik during 2014-2015 educational year. The sample of the study consists of 44 girls and 55 boys, totally 81 preschool students who are at age six.In the study, "Parent Information Form", "Preschool Social Behavior Instrument- Teacher Form" and "Safety Place Scenarios Test" were used to get data. The data getting through the measurement tools were analyzed by statistics program SPSS 15.0. According to participants' sex, birth style and attachment styles (insecure attachment, secure attachment) categories were compared through Independent Sample t- Test; children's parental status (whether together or not) were compared through Mann Whitney U test; education level of mother and father, birth order of child and primary caregiver variables were analyzed through One Way ANOVA test. LSD Post Hoc test was used to determine the significant group when significant difference was detected by ANOVA test. Analyze the relationshio between Social Behavior Instrument scores and Insecure Attachment and Secure Attachment were analyzed through Pearson Correlation. The results of the study shows that: -Attachment styles of participants were found on average level of "Secure Attachment Style". 37% of children show insecure attachment behavior, 63% of them show secure attachment behavior. -There is no significant relationship found between attachment styles of children and parental status (together or divorced), parental educational status, birth order, birth style and primary caregiver. -There is a significant difference found between children Open/Physical Aggression scores and sex. Open/physical aggression scores of boys are significantly higher than girls. -It is found that depressive emotion scores shows significant difference according to sex. -The is no significant relationship found between attachment styles and social behaviors at preschool period. Key words: Attachment theory, preschool period, social behavior.