Abstract:

For children who are born as a social entity and continue to expand their social environment with their age, the relationships with peers are extremely important for socialization. Understanding the structure of peer relationships established in preschools, where peer relationships are most common in early childhood, is a critical period to support children's development. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to adapt the " Teacher’s Checklist of Children’s Peer Relationships" to Turkish in order to understand the peer relationships of 4-6 years old preschool children, and conducta validity and reliability study. The sample of the study consists of 300 children selected by stratified sampling from kindergartens in Ankara in the spring semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. The scale is a 5-point Likert-type measurement tool consisting of 18 items and 3 sub-dimensions: Peer Relations, Aggression, and Teacher’s Assessments of Children’s Social Skills. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to ensure the construct validity of the scale and it was revealed that the original factor structure of the scale was confirmed as a result of CFA. The reliability of the scale was checked with the internal consistency coefficient. Cronbach's Alpha coefficients .85 for Peer Relations sub-dimension; .88 for Aggression sub-dimension; .94 for Teacher’s Assessments of Children’s Social Skills sub-dimension; calculated as. According to these results, the Teacher’s Checklist of Children’s Peer Relationships scale was adapted into Turkish as valid and reliable.

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