Investigating the association between playfulness, environment and social skills of preschool children

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Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Temel Eğitim Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2017

Öğrenci: BERNA SİCİM SEVİM

Danışman: FEYZA ERDEN

Özet:

The purpose of this study is to investigate the associations between playfulness and social skills of preschool children and preschools’ environment supportiveness for playfulness. The participants of the study were 212 5-year-old preschool children (94 boys, 118 girls). The data were collected in 16 private (n=6) and public (n=10) preschools. After grouping preschool settings into low, moderate and high levels of environmental supports for play by using The Test of Environmental Supportiveness, the Test of Playfulness provided scores on children’s playfulness. Then the Social Skills Rating System Scale, preschool version which was completed by the children’s preschool teachers (n=30), gave information about children’s social skills and behavioral problems. The results of the study demonstrated that the playfulness level of children in Turkey was relatively high. By using Rasch analysis, it was found that children have difficulty manifesting the constraints of reality in their free play interactions when compared to other subscales of playfulness. ANOVA and Correlation analyses revealed that there was a significant difference between levels of environmental support for children’s playfulness and significant correlation between children’s playfulness and their social skills. The findings of this study may help to understand what is supporting or hindering children’s playfulness.