Abstract:

The main purpose of the study is to examine the effects of the primary school starting age on the self-esteem and social adjustment levels of students of the 5th grade. In addition, the relationships between some demographic variables (gender, number of siblings, parental education level, parental status, attendance at kindergarten, and teacher change in primary school) and social adjustment and self-esteem were examined. Walker-McCannell Adaptation to School and Social Skills Scale, Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory Short Form and appropriately arranged Demographic Information Form applied to 436 5th grade students in Kartal district. Independent Sample T-Test, Pearson Correlation Analysis and One-Way ANOVA were used to analyse collected data. According to the results, there is no significant relationship neither between the age to start school and self-esteem nor between social adjustment. The self-esteem of female students is significantly higher than males and the self-esteem of students whose parents are together have higher self-esteem than the students that have divorced parents. It is also found that, there are significant relationship between education levels of children’s parents, number of siblings and self-esteem. Another significant difference is detected between number of siblings and children’s social adaptation.

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