Investigation of the relationship between perspective-taking and emotion regulation skills of preschool children

In this study, it was aimed to examine the relationship between preschool children's perspective taking skills and emotion regulation skills. The research was designed with the correlational survey method, one of the quantitative research methods. 143 children aged between 48-72 months, attending kindergartens affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in Eskişehir province, participated in the research. "Child General Information Form", "Perspective Taking Test of Children" (PTC) and " Emotion Regulation Skills Scale" were used as data collection tools. Whether the children's perspective taking and emotion regulation scores differ according to variables such as age, gender, number of siblings, duration of school attendance, etc., was analyzed using the t-test and ANOVA test, and the relationship between perspective taking and emotion regulation skills was analyzed using the Pearson Correlation method. As a result of the research, it was determined that there were significant differences in children's perspective-taking skills according to age, gender, school attendance and mother's working status, while there were significant differences in emotion regulation skills according to age and mother's working status. There was no significant relationship between the children's Emotion Regulation Skills Scale total score and the PTC total score. However, positive significant correlations were found between the scores of the sub-dimensions of recognizing/understanding emotions and expressing emotions of the Emotion Regulation Skills Scale, and the total score of the PTC and the score of the emotional perspective-taking sub-dimension of the PTC. In addition, it was determined that there was a positive and significant relationship between the scores of the recognizing/understanding emotions sub-dimension and the perceptual perspective-taking sub-dimension of the PTC.