An analysis of the relationship between the levels of preschool teachers' alienation from the profession and the behavioural problems of children

This study was conducted to determine the relationship between the levels of preschool teachers' alienation from the profession and the behavioural problems of children. The universe of the research consists of a total of 428 preschool teachers and 6140 children working in Çayırova and Gebze districts of Kocaeli province in the 2024-2025 academic year. Considering the researcher's possibilities and the acceptance of the program implementation by the institution's management, the convenience sampling method was used. The pilot study for the research was conducted in the districts of Gebze and Çayırova. The sample size was determined based on calculations performed with the GPower program, under the conditions of an alpha of 0.05, a power of 0.95, and an effect size of 0.286. Accordingly, the number of teachers and children to be sampled was set at 127 for each. "The Child Behaviour Evaluation Scale" developed by Şehirli (2007) and completed by the teachers to evaluate the children's problem behaviours, and "The Preschool Teachers' Alienation from the Profession Scale" developed by Kıhrı (2013) were used as the data collection tools of the study. At the end of the study; analyses indicated that there was no statistically significant correlation between the sub-dimensions of the Preschool Teachers' Alienation from the Profession Scale (meaninglessness, isolation, self-alienation, powerlessness, normlessness) and the sub-dimensions of the Child Behaviour Evaluation Scale (rebellious behaviour, compliance, social anxiety) (p>0.05). Teachers' levels of alienation from the profession exhibited no significant difference according to gender, marital status, having children and the institution they work in (p>0.05). However, in terms of seniority, it was found that teachers with 6 to 10 years of seniority had higher scores in the sub-dimension of "sense of powerlessness" than those with 5 years of seniority or less (p<0.05). In terms of child behaviours, a significant difference was found between the age groups of 5 and 6 only in the sub-dimension of "social anxiety" in that 5-year-old children exhibited higher social anxiety compared to 6-year-olds (p<0.05). While gender and the number of children in the family created no difference in the sub-dimensions of the Child Behaviour Evaluation Scale, profession and educational status of the parents had an impact on behavioural results. Children of teacher parents had a lower score of rebellious behaviours and a lower total score of Child Behaviour Evaluation Scale compared to the children of housewife mothers and worker fathers (p<0.05). Also, while children of parents with a bachelor's degree had lower scores of rebellious behaviours and compliance, and a lower total score of Child Behaviour Evaluation Scale, children of primary and secondary school graduate parents had higher scores in the sub-dimension of compliance (p<0.05).