How Children's Interpersonal Cognitive Problem Solving Skills Change Through the Years

WOS: 000271960500005Problem Statement: Because of innovations in science, technology, the media and changing lifestyles, the quality of education and the socio-cultural backgrounds of families play an important role in the problem-solving skills of children. How and to what extent negative or positive life experiences which are carried out by rapid changes through life would affect alternative problem solving thinking skills of children. Purpose of the Study: This studyaimed to assess whether or not the rapid changes and the progress in education affect the number of solutions related to the interpersonal problem-solving skills of children. The categories of the solution also were examined that children propose more socially accepted solutions with prosocial categories rather than those with violence categories. Methods: Two different groups of participants were compared in this study. The sample of the first study conducted in 1994 consisted of 74 children (34 girls, 40 boys) who attended public preschools (Din er, 1995). The sample of the second study conducted in 2004 consisted of 56 children (26 girls, 30 boys) attending two private and public preschools (Anliak, 2004). The Preschool Interpersonal Problem Solving Test (Shure, 1992), which took 2030 minutes to complete individually, was used by well-trained testors to evaluate the alternative thinking skills of children. Findings and Results: The findings of the PIPS Test indicate that there was a significant increase in the number of categories and solutions proposed by children when compared to the findings of the first group, ten years ago. Although the numbers of solutions and categories concerning peer- and mother-related problems were high in total, it was observed that statistically there was not a significant increase in the total number of solutions concerning peer-related problems. When the categories that the children used to solve interpersonal problems were examined, we observed that today's children use the categories of Loan and Physical Attack on Person for peer problems and the categories of Replace, Repair, Authority Aid, and Hide for mother-related problems. Conclusions and Recommendations: These findings show that it would be beneficial to enrich preschool education in Turkey in terms of interpersonal cognitive problem-solving skills. In other words, preschool education programs need to be supported with activities that systematically help children to gain these skills