The relationship between play behaviors, social competence behaviors and parental attitudes of children attending preschool education institutions

The aim of this study is to determine the play behaviors, social competence behaviors and parental attitudes of children attending preschool education institutions affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the 2017-2018 academic year and to examine the relationships between these variables. In this study, correlational survey model was used. The target population of the study is composed of 12,183 children who are attending preschool education institutions affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the central districts of Van province that are Ipekyolu, Tuşba and Edremit in the 2017-2018 academic year and their parents. The sample of the study consists of 521 children and their parents that were determined by stratified sampling method. In this study, "Play Behaviors Scale for Children of 36-71 Months" was used to determine the play behaviors of children, "Social Competence and Behavior Assessment-30 Scale" was used in order to determine social competence behaviors of children and "Parental Attitude Scale" was used to identify parents' parental attitudes. In the analysis of research data, descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation), differential statistics (t test, ANOVA, MANOVA) and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient were used. At the end of the analysis; ıt was concluded that children who attend preschool education institutions often exhibit social play behaviors, sometimes exhibit parallel play behaviors, seldom exhibit solitary and rough tumble play behaviors, hardly exhibit reticent play behaviors. It was concluded that boys exhibit rough tumble play behaviors more than girls, and children exhibit social play behaviors more as the level of maternal education increases, but children's play behaviors do not differ significantly according to age, number of siblings, father's education level and family income level. It was concluded that children often exhibit social competence behaviors, and hardly exhibit anxiety-introversion and anger-aggression behaviors. The social competence scores of girls are higher than boys; the social competence behaviors of the children increase as the level of parental education increases in spite of that anxiety-aggression and anger-aggression behaviors decrease; as the number of siblings increase, children's anxiety-introverted behaviors increase; but children's social competence, anxiety-introverted and anger-aggression behaviors do not differ significantly according to age and family's income level. It was concluded that the parents of the children exhibit democratic and over-protective parental attitudes at most, respectively. They exhibit permissive and authoritarian attitudes at least, respectively. As the number of children increases, the democratic attitude decreases; as the parents' level of education and income increase, the parents adopt the democratic attitude more, but the authoritarian and over-protective attitude are adopted less. It was concluded that there are significant relationships between children's play behaviors, social competence behaviors and parents' parental attitudes.