Social competence and emotional regulation in preschool children as a function of maternal acceptance and rejection

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to analyze the relationship between maternal acceptance-rejection levels and preschool children's social competence and emotional regulation skills. Sample of the research, which was designed according to relational scanning model, consisted of 303 mother-child pairs who were attending a pre-school educational institution during 2014-15 academic years, in Istanbul, selected by random sampling. The tools used for data collection were "Personal Information Form", "Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire-Mother Form (PARQ)", "Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation-30 (SCBE-30)" and "Emotion Regulation Checklist". Maternal acceptance-rejection levels were evaluated by themselves, whereas children's social competence and emotional regulation skills were evaluated by their teachers. The obtained data were analyzed by Pearson correlation test and t-test, using appropriate statistical software. As a result of the study, it has been found that there is a positive and significant relationship between a mother's acceptance level and children's "Social Competence" subscale of SCBE-30 and their emotional regulation skills. Keywords: Maternal acceptance-rejection, social competence, emotional regulation.