Analyzing the Relationship between Preschool Children's Competitive Styles and Their Play Skills

Competition that often observed phenomenon in the behaviors of kindergarten children (Sheridan & Williams, 2006; Tsiakara & Digelidis, 2012) has many different definitions. Competition can be defined as desire to win in... [ view full abstract ]

Competition that often observed phenomenon in the behaviors of kindergarten children (Sheridan & Williams, 2006; Tsiakara & Digelidis, 2012) has many different definitions. Competition can be defined as desire to win in interpersonal environments; desire to be better than the others; enjoying competing with others; focusing on a goal and eliminate other individuals to achieve that goal or not wanting to share the determined goal with others (Deutsch, 1949; Dobb, 1952; Helmreich & Spence, 1978; Riskind & Wilson, 1982; as cited in Yenidünya, 2005). Competition is considered in two dimensions as interpersonal competition and target (purpose) competition by Pierson (1990) and this definition put forward point of view that covers all other definitions. Even though competition often occurs in the behaviors of preschool children, it has been seen that there are very limited researches about children and competition in the literature. Tsiakara and Digelidis (2012) pointed out that children compete about comparing their physical features, abilities or skills with their classmates. It is possible to say that play is the most-staged area including competition in children’s lives. It is possible to find studies/researches about children’s play and play skills in literature; but there is very limited study about the competitions in the play of children or comparing the play skills and competitive behavior of children. For this reason, this study was designed to examine the relationship between competitive styles and play skills of preschool children who are actively competing in their life. Tools that used in this study are Preschool Competition Questionnaire (Uyanık Balat, Akman & Arslan Çiftçi, 2017) and Knox Preschool Play Scale (Değirmenci, 2016). The data of this study has been collected from approximately 150 children who continue to preschool education in autumn term of 2016-2017 academic year, in İstanbul and analysis of the data has been ongoing.