The association between learning behaviours and social competence of Turkish preschool children

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the current study was to examine the associations between learning behaviours and social competencies of Turkish preschool children. The participants were a total of 140 children (59 girls) with the mean age of 62.56 months (SD = 8.52)enrolled in an urban school district in Turkey. Teachers reported on the children's learning behaviours (competence/motivation, attention/persistence, attitude toward learning) and social competencies (academic skills, peer relations, self-management). Canonical correlation analyses were used to test the multivariate associations between learning behaviours and the social competencies of the children. Results from bivariate correlations showed that all of the three factors for learning behaviours were positively associated with the three factors of social competence. Further, this result was confirmed through canonical correlation analyses showing that all of the learning behaviours strongly contributed to functions related to social competence. There was no gender difference for both learning behaviours and social competence. Limitations and future directions are discussed in the light of the findings.

KEYWORDS:

• Turkish children
• learning behavior
• social competence
• canonical correlation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Mefharet Veziroglu-Celik is an assistant professor in Istanbul Medipol University.

Ibrahim H. Acar is an assistant professor in Ozyegin University.