The Relationship Between Preschool Children’s Social Competence Skills and Their Ability to Communicate With Their Mothers

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between four to five year old children’s social competence levels and their ability to communicate with their mothers. Social competence has an important role in developing positive relationships in children s lives. One of the most important factors in the development of social competence in children is the communication they have with their mothers. In the study, one of the general survey models, “relational survey model” was used. The study group consisted of 323 children attending public kindergartens in Istanbul. General Information Form, Social Competence and Behavior Assessment Scale and Parent-Child Communication Assessment Tool were used as data collection tools. In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics were calculated via examining the data distribution. In order to determine the relationships between preschool children s mothers’ communication and social competence, Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated. At the end of the study, it was observed that children’s social competence average was high, and the mean of inward and outward oriented problems were close and low. Besides, there was a negative and high-level correlation between total social competence scores and inward oriented and outward oriented problems. Considering mothers’ communication with their children, there was a positive and high-level relationship between the empathy and speech dimensions. While there was no significant relationship between the total scores of children s social competence levels and their relationship with their mothers, some significant relationships were determined regarding sub-dimensions. These results of the present study show that mothers’ communication skills such as empathy, speaking, listening and conveying messages are effective in increasing children s social competence skills and reduce behavioral problems.