The Correlates of Turkish Preschool Preservice Teachers’ Social Competence, Empathy and Communication Skills

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to examine the associations between Turkish preschool pre-service teacher’s personal and educational characteristics, and their social competence, empathy, and communication skills. A total of 385 state university Turkish pre-service teachers (age range 18 to 32 years) from the early childhood education field completed a Demographic Information Form on personal and educational characteristics, the Social Skills Inventory (SSI) Scale measuring their social competence, The Scales of Empathic Tendency for measuring empathy skills, and a Communication Skills Evaluation Scale measuring communication skills. Bivariate Pearson-correlations, independent t tests, and one-way ANOVAs were used to test study hypotheses. Results indicated that women scored higher on empathy and communication skills, and having more friends was related to higher social competence and empathy. Pre-service teachers who were members of a social club scored higher on communication skills than their peers. Additional associations among variables, limitations, and future directions are discussed.