Özet:

Problem situation: The first major influence on self concept comes from parents, second from friends and third from the school. It is affected by parents through discipline and love, by peers through pressure on displaying the proper behavior, by school experience through success or failure and by many other factors. One of these factors is the social support factor. In families where children are supported, individuals develop more positive personalities and social structures. Friends also become important at later stages of the psycho-social development of the child, which starts in the family. It has been asserted that children with good peer relations have high self-respect and similarly, children who join in social mediums less have low self-respect. Social support received from the family and peers affect the self respect of the child positively. Peer support ensures effective coping and strategy development, which bring about social support both from friends and from the family. In addition to the family and friends, teachers are also important sources of support for the child. In developing the self concept of children, it is quite important that teachers care about the problems of the child, play a supportive role and are a good role-model for the child. The supportive attitude of a teacher can increase peer support. Self concept is formed positively with the support received from these social support sources and a positive self can facilitate the child’s adjustment. Aim:The aim of this study was to examine the self concept and the perception of social support of children at the second level (grades 6, 7 and 8) of regional elementary boarding schools – boarding and day attending – and normal elementary schools according to certain variables, namely, their way of attendance, gender and class level, and to put forth the relationship between self-concept and the perception of social support.Method: The sample of research included 286 children. The data were collected by means of a General Information Form, Piers-Harris Children's Self Concept Scale and Social Support Appraisals Scale for Children and Adolescents. To analyze the data, unbound two-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA), Scheffe test of materiality in multiple comparisons and Pearson correlation coefficient significance test were conducted. Findings:The results indicated that the way of children's school attendance affected the self-concept score and all sub-dimension scores of social support in favor of regional boarding primary school children attending day care, resulting in a significant difference (p<.01). The gender of children had a significant impact on the self-concept score and all sub-dimension scores of social support in favor of girls (p<.05). In all three ways of school attendance, (students attending boarding and daytime to regional elementary school, students attending normal elementary schools’) a positive relationship was found between the self-concept score and the scores of friend support, family support, teacher support as well as the total social support score (p<0.01).

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