Parental Influence on Children's School Adjustment Levels in the Early Years

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of parental attitudes on the social-emotional adjustment levels of preschool children.Materials and Methods: The study group consisted of 408 preschool teachers and 408 parents who assessed the social-emotional adjustment levels of their children. Data were collected using the "General Information Form," the "Marmara Social-Emotional Adjustment Scale (MSEAS-5-Year-Old Children)," and the "Parenting Attitude Scale (PAS) - Form A." Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, Tukey HSD post hoc test, and structural regression analysis were used in data analysis.Results: As a result, a significant relationship was determined between children's social-emotional adjustment and parental attitudes such as democratic attitude and oppressive-authoritarian attitude. Democratic attitude levels were found to be a positive and significant predictor of children's social-emotional adjustment levels, while oppressive-authoritarian attitude levels were not. Significant differences were also found in social adaptation levels based on the child's gender and the father's education level.Conclusion: The study emphasized the importance of parental attitudes in supporting children's social-emotional adaptation and offered suggestions for future research.