Poster #237 - Unsociability and Play Behaviors in Turkish Preschool Children: The Role of Teacher-Child Relationships

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Unsociability is a subtype of social withdrawal arising from a child’s preference for playing alone. It differs from another types of social withdrawal, shyness, in terms of social fear/anxiety. Compared to shyness, unsociability appears to be a relatively ‘benign’ form of social withdrawal, particularly in early childhood, where it has been largely unassociated with indices of socio-emotional functioning (Coplan et al., 2004; Coplan & Weeks, 2010). Although it is not related to social-emotional functioning, unsociable children are also socially disconnected from the peer group regarding to their play behavior. In this case, the quality of the relationship between a teacher and unsociable children plays an important role for opening a communication channel between them. Teacher’s relationship with unsociable children might impact play behavior in preschool. In the literature, there has been a considerable amount of research on shy children and the relationship between these children and their teachers, but relatively little attention paid to unsociability (Arbeau, Coplan & Weeks, 2010; Rubin et al., 2009).

The purpose of the present study was to examine the moderating role of the quality of the relationship between children and teachers (i.e., closeness and conflict) in association with children’s unsociability scores and their play behaviors (i.e. reticence behavior, social play). We hypothesized that whether the relationship between teachers and children moderates the relationship between them with respect to unsociability and their play behaviors. Participants were 211 three to six-year-old children (M= 60.3 months, SD = 2.26, 94 girls, 117 boys). Mothers reported their unsociability; teachers reported teacher-child relationships and their school social behaviors. All analyses were conducted using R and moderating effects were tested using path analysis.

The model used to specify the relationship between variables did not reveal a significant two-way interaction between the standardized continuous variable unsociability and the categorical variable teacher conflict (i.e., 0 : low and 1: high) in predicting the standardized continuous outcome social play (see plot A in Figure 1). Similarly, the model did not reveal a significant two-way interaction between the standardized continuous variable unsociability and another categorical variable teacher closeness (i.e., 0 : low and 1: high) in predicting the standardized continuous outcome reticence behavior (see plot D in Figure 1). In these two plots, namely, in plots A and D, the two regression lines appear to be almost parallel to each other which indicates an absence of interaction between the variables. In contrast, the model displayed a significant two way interaction between the standardized continuous variable unsociability and the categorical variable teacher closeness in predicting the standardized continuous outcome social play (see plot B in Figure 1). Similarly, the model displayed a significant two-way interaction between the standardized continuous variable unsociability and the categorical variable teacher conflict in predicting the standardized continuous outcome reticence behavior (see plot C in Figure 1). In these plots, the regression lines for low and high cases are crossed with each other which demonstrates that there is a significant interaction between the corresponding variables.

Authors

• Ozge Metin Aslan, Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University
  Presenting Author

• Menekse Boz, Hacettepe University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Irem Akçam Yalçın, Hacettepe University
  Non-Presenting Author