TY  - JOUR
T1  - Examination of Preschool Children's Social Information Processing Skills in Terms of Attention and Emotion Regulation Skills
AU  - Doğan Marsak, Ebru
AU  - Alakoç, Devlet
PY  - 2025
DA  - July
Y2  - 2025
DO  - 10.17275/per.25.50.12.4
JF  - Participatory Educational Research
JO  - PER
PB  - Özgen KORKMAZ
WT  - DergiPark
SN  - 2148-6123
SP  - 82
EP  - 99
VL  - 12
IS  - 4
LA  - en
AB  - This study aims to investigate the predictive effect of children's attention and emotion regulation skills, along with the examined demographic variables, on their social information processing abilities. Furthermore, it seeks to explore social information processing, emotion regulation, and attention skills in relation to children's age, gender, and duration of preschool education. The study group comprised 201 children aged between 60 and 72 months enrolled in preschools located in the city centre of Karaman, Türkiye. The study was designed using the relational survey model. Data collection instruments included the Personal Information Form, the Social Information Processing Process Test for Preschool Children, the Emotion Regulation Scale, and the FTF-K Attention Collection Test. Findings indicated that attention skills emerged as a significant predictor of social information processing skills, followed by the child's age range and emotion regulation skills. Additionally, while no substantial gender differences were observed in terms of social information processing and attention skills, a notable distinction was identified in favour of girls in emotion regulation skills. Furthermore, a significant disparity was identified in the social information processing and attention skills of children between the ages of 66 and 72 months, with a tendency towards higher performance in girls. The study concluded that social information processing, emotion and attention skills varied significantly based on the duration of preschool education, with children who attended preschool for a year or more demonstrating higher mean scores.
KW  - Social information processing
KW  - emotion regulation
KW  - attention
CR  - Acar, I. H., Veziroğlu-Çelik, M., Çelebi, Ş., İngeç, D., & Kuzgun, S. (2021). Parenting styles and Turkish children’s emotion regulation: The mediating role of parent-teacher relationships. Current Psychology, 40(9), 4427-4437. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00390-y
CR  - Ahmetoğlu, E., Ilhan Ildiz, G., Acar, I. H., &Encinger, A. (2018). Children's emotion regulation and attachment to parents: parental emotion socialization as a moderator. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 46(6), 969-984. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.6795
CR  - Aktaş, G. D. (2021). The effect of the length of screen time on visual perceptions and attention skills of pre-school children, age between 60-72 months (Unpublished master's thesis). Üsküdar University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
CR  - Anderson, A. K. (2005). Affective influences on the attentional dynamics supporting awareness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 134(2), 258–281. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.134.2.258
CR  - Apaydın Demirci, Z., Arslan, E., & Temel, M. (2020). Analyzing of emotional regulation and interpersonal problem solving skills of preschool children. Turkish Journal of Educational Sciences, 18(2), 910–925. https://doi.org/10.37217/tebd.714803
CR  - Aslan, H., Aksoy, Y., & İmamoğlu, O. (2020). Comparison of attention levels according to sport status and age category in students. Electronic Turkish Studies, 15(2), 729–738. https://doi.org/10.29228/TurkishStudies.41719
CR  - Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191-215. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191
CR  - Bascoe, S. M., Davies, P. T., Sturge-Apple, M. L., & Cummings, E. M. (2009). Children’s representations of family relationships, peer information processing, and school adjustment. Developmental Psychology, 45(6), 1740–1751. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016688
CR  - Batum, P., & Yagmurlu, B. (2007). What counts in externalizing behaviors? The contributions of emotion and behavior regulation. Current Psychology, 25, 272-294. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02915236
CR  - Bauminger, N., & Kimhi-Kind, I. (2008). Social information processing, security of attachment, and emotion regulation in children with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 41(4), 315-332. doi: 10.1177/0022219408316095
CR  - Blair C, (2002). School readiness: Integrating cognition and emotion in a neurobiological conceptualization of children’s functioning at school entry. American Psychologist, 57, 111–127. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0003-066X.57.2.111
CR  - Cacioppo, J. T., & Berntson, G. G. (1999). The affect system: Architecture and operating characteristics. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8, 133-137. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00031
CR  - Caporaso, J. S., Marcovitch, S., &Boseovski, J. J. (2021). Executive function and the development of social information processing during the preschool years. Cognitive Development, 58, 101018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2021.101018
CR  - Civil, F. (2022). Emotion regulation skills of 3-6 age group children and emotion regulation skills of mothers and life satisfaction (Unpublished master's thesis). Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Burdur, Türkiye.
CR  - Cole, P. M., Martin, S. E., & Dennis, T. A. (2004). Emotion regulation as a scientific construct: Methodological challenges and directions for child development research. Child Development, 75(2), 317-333. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00673.x
CR  - Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1994). A review and reformulation of social information-processing mechanisms in children's social adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 115(1), 74-101. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0033-2909.115.1.74
CR  - Çorbacı Oruç, A. (2008). Assesing social competence, peer relations and social information processing in 6 year old children (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Ankara University, Ankara, Türkiye.
CR  - Çubukçu, Z. & Gültekin, M. (2006). Social skills that need to be gained by primary school students. Bilig (37), 155-174
CR  - Dağlı, H., & Dağlıoğlu, H. E. (2021). Examining the relationship between preschool children's emotion regulation skills and problem solving skills. Cumhuriyet International Journal of Education, 10(3), 1020–1046. https://doi.org/10.30703/cije.799698
CR  - Davies, P. T., Coe, J. L., Hentges, R. F., Sturge‐Apple, M. L., & Ripple, M. T. (2020). Temperamental emotionality attributes as antecedents of children's social information processing. Child Development, 91(2), 508-526. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13191
CR  - Denham, S. A., & Bassett, H. H. (2018). Implications of preschoolers’ emotional competence in the classroom. In K. V. Keefer, J. D. A. Parker, & D. H. Saklofske (Eds.), Emotional Intelligence In Education: Integrating Research With Practice (pp. 135–171).Springer International Publishing/Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90633-1_6
CR  - Denham, S. A., Bassett, H. H., Way, E., Kalb, S., Warren-Khot, H., & Zinsser, K. (2014). “How would you feel? What would you do?” Development and underpinnings of preschoolers’ social information processing. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 28(2), 182-202. doi:10.1080/02568543.2014.883558
CR  - Denham, S. A., Kalb, S., Way, E., Warren-Khot, H., Rhoades, B. L., & Bassett, H. H. (2013). Social and emotional information processing in preschoolers: Indicator of early school success? Early Child Development and Care, 183(5), 667–688. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2012.682728
CR  - Dinç, B. (2015). Teacher opinions about the effects of pre-school education on the social development of 4-5 years old children (Unpublished master's thesis). Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Türkiye.
CR  - Dodge, K. A. (1986). A Social information processing model of social competence in children. In M. Perlmutter (Ed.). Minnesota Symposium in Child Psychology (Vol. 18, pp. 77 – 125). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
CR  - Dodge, K. A., & Price, J. M. (1994). On the relation between social information processing and socially competent behavior in early school‐aged children. Child Development, 65(5), 1385-1397. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1994.tb00823.x
CR  - Dodge, K. A. (2014). A social information processing model of social competence in children. In M. Pelmutter (Ed.), Cognitive Perspectives on Children’s Social and Behavioral Development (pp. 77-126). New York: Psychology Press.
CR  - Durulan, D., & Angın, D. (2023). Investigation of the effect of mind and intelligence games on preschool children's attention and visual perception levels. Dokuz Eylül University Journal of the Institute of Social Sciences, 25(1), 333–357. https://doi.org/10.16953/deusosbil.1181847
CR  - Eisenberg, N., & Fabes, R. A. (1992). Emotion, regulation, and the development of social competence. In M. S. Clark (Ed.), Emotion and Social Behavior (pp. 119–150). Sage Publications, Inc.
CR  - Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Shepard, S. A., Murphy, B. C., Guthrie, I. K., Jones, S. vd. (1997). Contemporaneous and longitudinal prediction of children's social functioning from regulation and emotionality. Child Development, 68(4), 642- 664. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1997.tb04227.x
CR  - Eisenberg, N., Guthrie, I. K., Fabes, R. A., Shepard, S., Losoya, S., Murphy, B., ... & Reiser, M. (2000). Prediction of elementary school children's externalizing problem behaviors from attentional and behavioral regulation and negative emotionality. Child Development, 71(5), 1367-1382. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00233
CR  - Erden, M., & Akman, Y. (1998). Development-Learning-Teaching: Educational Psychology. Ankara, Türkiye: Arkadaş Yayınları.
CR  - Erdley, C. A., Rivera, M. S., Shepherd, E. J., & Holleb, L. J. (2010). Social-cognitive models and skills. In D. W. Nangle, D. J. Hansen, C. A. Erdley, & P. J. Norton (Eds.), Practitioner's Guide To Empirically Based Measures Of Social Skills (pp. 21–35). Springer Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0609-0_2
CR  - Erel, S. (2016). The relationship between preschoolers' perspective-taking skills, emotion regulation, moral development, and problem behaviors (Unpublished master's thesis). Hacettepe University, Ankara, Türkiye.
CR  - Fabes, R. A., Eisenberg, N., Jones, S., Smith, M., Guthrie, I., Poulin, R.,.& Friedman, J. (1999). Regulation, emotionality, and preschoolers' socially competent peer interactions. Child Development, 70(2), 432-442. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00031
CR  - Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Buchner, A., & Lang, A. G. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G* Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behavior Research Methods, 41(4), 1149-1160.https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.41.4.1149
CR  - Fontaine, R. G., & Dodge, K. A. (2006). Real‐time decision making and aggressive behavior in youth: A heuristic model of response evaluation and decision (RED). Aggressive Behavior: Official Journal of the International Society for Research on Aggression, 32(6), 604-624. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20150
CR  - George. D. & Mallery. P. (2019). IBM SPSS Statistics 26 Step By Step: A Simple Guide And Reference. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429056765
CR  - Gözalan, E., & Koçak, N. (2014). The effect of game-based traınıng program on the 5-6 aged chıldrens vocabulary. Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University Journal of Social and Economic Research, 2014(4), 115–121. https://doi.org/10.18493/kmusekad.12328
CR  - Gözüm, A. İ. C., & Kandır, A. (2018). Reliability study of the frankfurter concentration test for five-year-olds (Frankfurter Test Für Fünfjährige Konzentration-FTF-K) for five-year-old children. In S. Dinç (Ed.), Education in a Changing World (pp. 57–66). Ankara, Türkiye: Pegem Akademi.
CR  - Gültekin Akduman, G., Günindi, Y., & Türkoğlu, D. (2015). The investigation of the relations between social skills level and behavioral problems in preschool children. International Journal of Social Research, 8(37). ISSN: 1307-9581.
CR  - Günindi, N. (2008). Examining the relation between the six-year-old children?s social adjustment skills in the kindergarten and their parents? empathy skills (Unpublished master's thesis). Gazi University, Ankara, Türkiye.
CR  - Gür, D. (2018). Relationship between primary school students' levels of attention, self-regulation skills and reading comprehension levels (Unpublished master's thesis). Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale, Türkiye.
CR  - Harper, B. D., Lemerise, E. A., & Caverly, S. L. (2010). The effect of induced mood on children’s social information processing: Goal clarification and response decision. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38(5), 575-586. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-009-9356-7
CR  - Helmsen, J., Koglin, U., & Petermann, F. (2012). Emotion regulation and aggressive behavior in preschoolers: The mediating role of social information processing. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 43, 87-101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-011-0252-3
CR  - Herba, C., & Phillips, M. (2004). Annotation: Development of facial expression recognition from childhood to adolescence: Behavioural and neurological perspectives. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 45(7), 1185–1198. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2004.00316.x
CR  - Izard, C., Stark, K., Trentacosta, C., & Schultz, D. (2008). Beyond emotion regulation: Emotion utilization and adaptive functioning. Child Development Perspectives, 2(3), 156-163. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2008.00058.x
CR  - Johnson, A., Nelson, J. M., Tomaso, C. C., James, T., Espy, K. A., & Nelson, T. D. (2020). Preschool executive control predicts social information processing in early elementary school. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 71, 101195.. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2020.101195
CR  - Karasar, N. (2011). Scientific Research Method (22nd ed.). Ankara, Türkiye: Nobel.
CR  - Kaymak, S. (1995). Attention focusing studies in five-year-old children attending kindergarten (Unpublished master's thesis). Ankara University, Ankara, Türkiye.
CR  - Kopp, C., B. (1989). Regulation of distress and negative emotions: a developmental view. Developmental Psychology, 25,343-354. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0012-1649.25.3.343
CR  - Lawson, K., & Ruff, H. (2004). Early attention and negative emotionality predict later cognitive and behavioural function. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 28(2), 157-165.https://doi.org/10.1080/01650250344000361
CR  - Lemerise E. A., Arsenio W. F. (2000). An integrated model of emotion processes and cognition in social information processing. Child Development, 71 (1), 107–118. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00124
CR  - Lim, K. G. (2002). Executive functioning, social information processing, and social competence in school-age children (Unpublished doctoral dissertation).Pennsylvania State University
CR  - López-Pérez, B., Gummerum, M., Wilson, E., & Dellaria, G. (2017). Studying children's intrapersonal emotion regulation strategies from the process model of emotion regulation. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 178(2), 73-88. doi:10.1080/00221325.2016.123008
CR  - Matheny, A. P., Riese, M. L., & Wilson, R. S. (1985). Rudiments of infant temperament: Newborn to 9 months. Developmental Psychology, 21(3),486–494. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.21.3.486
CR  - Mehmetoğlu Yontar, B. (2019). Relationship between the personal walues of preschool teachers and emotion regulation skills of children (Unpublished master's thesis). İstanbul Okan University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
CR  - Murphy, B. C., & Eisenberg, N. (1996). Provoked by a peer: Children's anger-related responses and their relations to social functioning. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly. 42(1), 103-124.
CR  - Öner, Ş., & Özbey, S. (2022). The investigation of English teachers’ professional self-efficacy perceptions in terms of various variables. Journal of Social Humanities and Administrative Sciences, 53, 759–770. https://doi.org/10.29228/JOSHAS.62751
CR  - Ostrov, J. M., & Godleski, S. A. (2010). Toward an integrated gender-linked model of aggression subtypes in early and middle childhood. Psychological Review, 117(1), 233. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0018070
CR  - Parasuraman, R. (2000). Attention as selection. The American Journal of Psychology, 113(1), 135. doı:10.2307/1423464.
CR  - Pessoa, L. (2008). On the relationship between emotion and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(2), 148-158. doi: 10.1038/nrn2317.
CR  - Peth-Pierce, R. (2000). A good beginning: sending America’s children to school with the social and emotional competence they need to succeed. ERIC Number: ED445810
CR  - Raatz, U., &Möhling, R. (1971). Frankfurter tests für fünfjährige-konzentration: FTF-K. Weinheim: Beltz.
CR  - Riney, S. S., & Bullock, L. M. (2012). Teachers' perspectives on student problematic behavior and social skills. Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 17(2), 195-211. doi:10.1080/13632752.2012.675136.
CR  - Rothbart,M., K. (1989). Biological processes in temperament. Temperament in Childhood, 77, 110.
CR  - Rowell Huesmann, L. (1988), An information processing model for the development of aggression. Aggr. Behav., 14,13-24. https://doi.org/10.1002/1098-2337
CR  - Rubin, K.H., Rose-Krasnor, L. (1992). Interpersonal Problem Solving and Social Competence in Children. In: Van Hasselt, V.B., Hersen, M. (eds) Handbook of Social Development. Perspectives in Developmental Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0694-6_12
CR  - Rueda, M.R., Posner, M.I., & Rothbart, M.K. (2016). The development of executive attention: Contributions to the emergence of self-regulation. In Measuring Executive Function In Early Childhood (pp. 573-594). Psychology Press
CR  - Sanchis-Sanchis A, Grau M.D., Moliner A.R., Morales-Murillo C.P. (2020). Effects of age and gender in emotion regulation of children and adolescents. Front Psychol. 26 (11),946. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00946. PMID: 32528367; PMCID: PMC7265134.
CR  - Şenol, F. B., & Metin, E. N. (2019). Social information processing interview–preschool version: adaptation to Turkish validity and reliability study. Kastamonu Journal of Education, 27(4), 1445–1456. https://doi.org/10.24106/kefdergi.2829
CR  - Shields A., Cicchetti D. (1997). Emotion regulation among school-age children: the development and validation of a new criterion Q-sort scale. Developmental Psychology, 33(6), 906. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0012-1649.33.6.906
CR  - Tabachnick, B. G., Fidell, L. S., & Ullman, J. B. (2013). Using multivariate statistics (Vol. 6, pp. 497-516). Boston, MA: Pearson.
CR  - Tagay, Ö., Baydan, Y., & Acar, N. V. (2010). The effects of building lives on cooperative knowledge skills (BLOCKS) program on social skills of the middle school students. Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of the Institute of Social Sciences(3), 19–28. https://doi.org/10.20875/sb.59103
CR  - Teague, R. J. P. (2006). Social functioning in preschool children: Can social information processing and self-regulation skills explain sex differences and play a role in preventing ongoing problems?. Unpublished doctoral dissertation).Griffith University, Quinsland, Austraila.
CR  - Terzian, M. A., Li, J., Fraser, M. W., Day, S. H., & Rose, R. A. (2015). Social information-processing skills and aggression: A quasi-experimental trial of the Making Choices and Making Choices Plus programs. Research on Social Work Practice, 25(3), 358-369. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731514534898
CR  - Thompson, R. A., & Lagattuta, K. H. (2006). Feeling and understanding: early emotional development. In K. McCartney & D. Phillips (Eds.), Blackwell Handbook Of Early Childhood Development (pp.317–337).Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470757703.ch16
CR  - Vardi, Ö., & Demiriz, S. (2021). Investigation of the relationship between behavioral selfregulation and emotion regulation skills of 5-6 years old children. Gazi University Gazi Faculty of Education Journal, 41(3), 1993–2029. https://doi.org/10.17152/gefad.925176
CR  - Velazquez-Martin, B. M. (2013). Emotion regulation and academic school readiness: examining preschool relations and considering the impact of arts enrichment for economically disadvantaged children (Doctoral dissertation). West Chester University.
CR  - Yagmurlu, B., & Altan, O. (2010). Maternal socialization and child temperament as predictors of emotion regulation in Turkish preschoolers. Infant and Child Development: An International Journal of Research and Practice, 19(3), 275-296. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.646
CR  - Yılmaz, H. (2020). Development of preschool emotion regulation scale and predictability of mothers' emotion regulation difficulties on children's emotion regulation skills (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Marmara University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
CR  - Young, K. S., Sandman, C. F., & Craske, M. G. (2019). Positive and negative emotion regulation in adolescence: links to anxiety and depression. Brain Sciences, 9(4), 76. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci9040076
CR  - Yung, T. W., Lai, C. Y., Chan, J. Y., Ng, S. S., & Chan, C. C. (2021). Examining the role of attention deficits in the social problems and withdrawn behavior of children with sluggish cognitive tempo symptoms. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 585589. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.585589
CR  - Yurdakul, Y., Beyazit, U., & Ayhan, A. B. (2021). The examination of the relationship between emotional regulation and interactive play skills in preschool children. Afyon Kocatepe University Journal of Social Sciences, 23(4), 1291–1307. https://doi.org/10.32709/akusosbil.874538
CR  - Ziv Y, & Sorongon A, (2011). Social information processing in preschool children: Relation to sociodemographic risk and problem behavior. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 109, 412-429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2011.02.009
CR  - Ziv, Y. (2013). Social information processing patterns, social skills, and school readiness in preschool children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 114(2), 306-320. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2012.08.009
UR  - https://doi.org/10.17275/per.25.50.12.4
L1  - https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/4422983
ER  -