Diving into preschoolers’ coping strategies with emotions: A mixed method study

2024-07-08
Emotion regulation (ER) fosters children’s social competence and academic performance (for review; Harrington et al., 2020, Robson et al., 2020). The study’s aims are twofold. Firstly, it is to examine the relationship between ER and coping strategies. Secondly, it is to make an in-depth exploration of children's expression of these coping strategies in challenges that they encountered. To reach the aims, a triangulation-design mixed method study (Fraenkel et al., 2011) is employed. The data is collected from the 113 preschoolers (64 boys; M=66.65, SD=15.88). Quantitative data is collected using Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC; Shields & Cicchetti, 1997; Batum & Yağmurlu, 2007) and Emotion Regulation Strategies Questionnaire (ERSQ; Gölcük, 2020). Meanwhile, to collect qualitative data, researchers handed parents an activity sheet to fill out with children, including an expression of a challenge the children encountered, their feelings, and their coping ways in line with the challenge. Correlational analysis is used to analyze quantitative data. The qualitative data is analyzed by two researchers with a deductive thematic analysis driven by the theoretical base of interest (Braun & Clarke, 2006). It is based on ways of coping having eight forms of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies, confrontive coping, distancing, self-controlling, seeking social support, accepting responsibility, escape-avoidance, planful problem-solving and positive reappraisal (Folkman et al., 1986). The bivariate correlation revealed that there is a relationship between ER and distraction strategy (r=.206;p<.05). In line with this, escape avoidance and seeking social support are the most used coping strategies by preschoolers.
EARLI SIG 5: Learning and Development in Early Childhood
Citation Formats
B. Hamamcı and C. Peker, “Diving into preschoolers’ coping strategies with emotions: A mixed method study,” presented at the EARLI SIG 5: Learning and Development in Early Childhood, Warszawa, Polonya, 2024, Accessed: 00, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://lnkd.in/dyhBD4dk.