Relation between social adaptation and skills and temperament of pre-school children of 60 months and older

This study examines the relationship between pre-school children's social skills and temperament features. It is based on relational research model which is one of the descriptive research models. The study group includes mothers of 613 pre-school children of 60 months and older who lives in Meram district of Konya, Turkey. 'Social Adaptation and Skills Scale' was applied for qualifying social skills, 'Short Temperament Scale for Children' for temperament features, and 'General Information Form' for demographic statistics. The data is analysed in the programme of SPSS 21.0. T-test, variance analysis, multiple regressions analysis and Dunnett C test as a post hoc test to detect which group has the difference, were applied in the study. The research analysed children's gender, number of siblings, mother's age, mother's educational level, family type and family income level which affect their social skills and temperament features ( reactivity, persistence, rhythmicity, approach/withdrawal). In conclusion, gender, mother's educational level, family income level created a significant difference (p<0.05), whereas number of siblings, mother's age and family type did not (p>0.05), in the result of 'Social Adaptation and Skills Scale'. When we look at children's scores on temperament features, gender has a significant effect on reactivity and persistence (p<0.05) while it does not have any significant effect on approach/withdrawal and rhythmicity. Number of siblings and family type does not have a significant effect on all features with the exception of persistence (p>0.05). Mother's educational level has a significant effect on rhythmicity and reactivity, family level income on approach/withdrawal, rhythmicity and reactivity, and mother's age on rhythmicity (p<0.05). It is shown that there is an obvious relationship between social skills and temperament features. According to the outcome of the analyses, the changes in %28 of social adaptation sub-dimensions and %26 of social divergence sub-dimensions are related to the differences in temperaments. KeyWords:Social Adaptation, SocialSkills, SocialDivergence, Temperament, Pre-School Period.