3-5 Yaş Arası Çocukların Risk Alma Davranışlarında Anne Teşviğinin Etkisi

Öz

Risk alma davranışı, kazanç ve kayıp ihtimallerini içinde barındıran durumlar arasında tercih yapmayı içerir. Araştırmalar bilişsel beceriler, cinsiyet ve sosyalleşme süreçleri gibi çeşitli faktörlerin çocuklarda risk alma davranışını etkilediğini göstermektedir. Bu araştırmada da annelerin riske teşvik edici sözleri ve risk almama yönündeki telkinlerinin çocuklarının risk alma davranışları üzerindeki etkisi incelenmiştir. Bu doğrultuda gruplar arası deneysel desene sahip olan bu araştırmada risk alması yönünde açıklama yapılan ve risk almaması yönünde açıklama yapılan şeklinde iki deney grubu ve annenin ortamda bulunmadığı kontrol grubu olmak üzere üç koşul oluşturulmuştur. Araştırmaya okul öncesi eğitim alan, yaşları üç ile beş arasında değişen 57 kız, 57 erkek olmak üzere toplamda 114 katılımcı dâhil edilmiştir. Uygulamalar Ekim 2024 ile Mart 2025 tarihleri arasında gerçekleştirilmiştir. Çocukların risk alma davranışlarını değerlendirmek üzere kazanç ve kayıp denemelerinin yer aldığı bir risk alma görevi uygulanmıştır. Varyans analizi sonucunda anneleri tarafından risk almaya teşvik edilen çocuklar ile anneleri tarafından riske teşvik edilmeyen çocukların risk alma davranışları arasında anlamlı farklılık olduğu bulunmuştur. Deney ve kontrol grupları arasındaki farklar incelendiğinde, anneleri tarafından riske teşvik edilen deney grubundaki çocukların diğer gruplardaki çocuklara kıyasla anlamlı olarak daha fazla risk aldıkları görülmüştür. Anneleri tarafından riske teşvik edilmeyen ve annenin ortamda bulunmadığı kontrol grubundaki çocukların risk alma davranışlarında ise anlamlı farklılık bulunmamıştır. Yine sonuçlara göre, risk alma davranışlarında kız ve erkek çocukları arasında anlamlı farklılık görülmemiştir. Bulgular çocukların risk alma davranışında etkisi olabilecek faktörler üzerinden sınırlılık ve önerilerle birlikte tartışılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Ebeveynlik
• okul öncesi dönem
• risk
• risk alma davranışı

The Effect of Mother’s Encouragement in Risk-Taking Behaviors of 3 to 5 Year-Old Children

Öz

Risk-taking behavior involves making choices between situations that entail potential gains and losses. Research indicates that various factors such as cognitive abilities, gender, and socialization processes influence children's risk-taking behavior. This study aimed to examine the impact of mother’s encouragement or discouragement of risk-taking on children’s risk-taking behaviors. Accordingly, a between-subjects experimental design was used, comprising three conditions: a risk-encouraging experimental group, a risk-discouraging experimental group, and a control group in which the mother was absent from the environment. A total of 114 participants, 57 girls and 57 boys, receiving pre-school education and aged between 3-to 5-years, were included in the study. The applications were carried out between October 2024-March 2025. A risk-taking task involving gain and loss trials was administered to assess children’s risk-taking behavior. The ANOVA results indicated a significant difference in risk-taking behavior between children encouraged to take risks by their mothers and those discouraged from doing so. When the differences between the experimental and control groups were examined, analyses revealed that children in the experimental group who were encouraged to take risks by their mothers were found to take significantly more risks than children in the other groups. No significant difference was found between the risk-discouraging group and the control group. According to the results, there were no significant difference in risk-taking behaviors of girls and boys. The findings are discussed along with limitations and suggestions regarding factors that may have an impact on children's risk-taking behavior.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Parenting
• preschool period
• risk
• risk-taking behavior

Kaynakça

1. Aktar, E., Nimphy, C., van Bockstaele, B., & Pérez-Edgar, K. (2022). The social learning of threat and safety in the family: Parent-tochild transmission of social fears via verbal information. Developmental Psychobiology, 64(3), e22257. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.22257
2. Allen, J. P. (2024). Rethinking peer influence and risk taking: A strengths-based approach to adolescence in a new era. Development and Psychopathology, 36, 2244–2255. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579424000877
3. Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
4. Banerjee, R. (2002). Individual differences in children's understanding of social evaluation concerns. Infant and Child Development: An International Journal of Research and Practice, 11(3), 237-252. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.254
5. Blanks, A. G. (2016). The Development of childhood risk-taking: Parenting and self-regulation in sociocultural context. University of California, Riverside.
6. Booth, A. & Nolen, P. (2012). Choosing to compete: How different are girls and boys?. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 81(2), 542-555. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2011.07.018
7. Cárdenas, J. C., Dreber, A., Von Essen, E. & Ranehill, E. (2012). Gender differences in competitiveness and risk taking: Comparing children in Colombia and Sweden. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 83(1), 11-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2011.06.008
8. Carlson, S. M. (2005). Developmentally sensitive measures of executive function in preschool children. Developmental Neuropsychology, 28(2), 595–616.

9. Casey, B. J., Galván, A., & Somerville, L. H. (2016). Beyond simple models of adolescence to an integrated circuit-based account: A commentary. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 17, 128-130.
10. Cerniglia, L., & Di Pomponio, I. (2024). Decoding adolescent decision making: Neurocognitive processes, risk perception, and the influence of peers. Adolescents, 4(2), 222–225. https://doi.org/10.3390/adolescents4020015
11. Couture, S., Paquette, D., Bigras, M., Dubois-Comtois, K., Lemelin, J. P., Cyr, C., & Lemieux, A. (2025). Risk-taking behaviors of young children: The role of children’s and parents’ socioemotional and cognitive control systems. Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, 53(2), 235-246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-024-01277-8
12. Crone, E. A., & Dahl, R. E. (2012). Understanding adolescence as a period of social–affective engagement and goal flexibility. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 13(9), 636-650.
13. Crone, E. A., Vendel, I. & van der Molen, M. W. (2003). Decision-making in disinhibited adolescents and adults: Insensitivity to future consequences or driven by immediate reward?. Personality and Individual Differences, 35(7), 1625-1641. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(02)00386-0
14. Dawber, T. & Morrongiello, B. A. (1999). Mothers’ responses to boys and girls engaging in injury-risk behaviors on a playground: Implications for sex differences in childhood injuries. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 20, 227–251. https://doi.org/10.1006/jecp.2000.2572
15. Defoe, I. N., Dubas, J. S., Dalmaijer, E. S., & van Aken, M. A. (2020). Is the peer presence effect on heightened adolescent risky decision-making only present in males?. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49(3), 693-705. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01179-9
16. Dinella, L. M., & Weisgram, E. S. (2018). Gender-typing of children’s toys: Causes, consequences, and correlates. Sex Roles, 79(5), 253-259. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0943-3
17. Dishion, T. J. & McMahon, R. J. (1998). Parental monitoring and the prevention of child and adolescent problem behavior: A conceptual and empirical formulation. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 1, 61-75. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021800432380
18. Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., & Eggum, N. D. (2010). Emotion-related self-regulation and its relation to children’s maladjustment. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 6(1), 495-525.
19. Eroğul, N., & Civelek, Ç. (2025). Okul öncesi eğitimde çocuklar için felsefe (P4C): Toplumsal cinsiyet eşitliği için uyaran örnekleri. Uluslararası Sosyal Bilimler ve Eğitim Dergisi, 7(12), 101–140. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14884328
20. Ferrao, T., & Janssen, I. (2015). Parental encouragement is positively associated with outdoor active play outside of school hours among 7–12 year olds. PeerJ, 3, e1463.
21. Frick, A., Belletier, C., Tan, W., Meng, N., Zhou, Q., Christie, S., & Camos, V. (2025). The effects of an unfamiliar experimenter on proactive and reactive control in children. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 5860. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-89193-9
22. Furby, L. & Beyth-Marom, R. (1992). Risk taking in adolescence: A decision-making perspective. Developmental Review, 12(1), 1-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/0273-2297(92)90002-J
23. Ginsburg, H. J. & Miller, S. M. (1982). Sex differences in children's risk-taking behavior. Child Development, 426-428. https://doi.org/10.2307/1128985
24. Hao, J., Hsueh, Y., Kitzmann, K., Yuan, H., & Yue, Y. (2025). Early childhood risk-taking behaviors in Chinese parenting environment: The mediating role of parental supervision. Early Education and Development, 36(2), 265-282. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2024.2389363
25. Harshman, L. A., Levin, I. P., Weller, J. A. & Pederson, A. A. (2007). Age-related differences in adaptive decision making: Sensitivity to expected value in risky choice. Judgment and Decision Making, 2(4), 225-233. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1930297500000553
26. Hart, S. S. & Levin, I. P. (2003). Risk preferences in young children: Early evidence of individual differences in reaction to potential gains and losses. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 16(5), 397-413. https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.453
27. Hyde, J. S. (2014). Gender similarities and differences. Annual Review of Psychology, 65(1), 373-398.
28. Igra, V. & Irwin Jr, C. E. (1996). Theories of adolescent risk-taking behavior. In Handbook of adolescent health risk behavior (pp. 35-51). Boston, MA: Springer US. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0203-0_3
29. Katz, T., & Tomasello, M. (2024). Reciprocal reputation management: Preschoolers respond to shared credit with shared blame. Cognitive Development, 72, 101519. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2024.101519
30. Knoll, L. J., Leung, J. T., Foulkes, L., & Blakemore, S. J. (2017). Age-related differences in social influence on risk perception depend on the direction of influence. Journal of Adolescence, 60, 53-63.
31. Kohlberg, L. (1981). The philosophy of moral development. Moral stages and the idea of justice. New York: Harper & Row.Lee, Y. E., & Warneken, F. (2022). Does third-party punishment in children aim at equality. Developmental Psychology, 58, 866-873. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001331
32. Levine, L. E., & Munsch, J. (2010). Child development: An active learning approach . Thousand Oaks: Sage.
33. Little, H. (2010). Relationship between parents’ beliefs and their responses to children’s risk-taking behaviour during outdoor play. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 8(3), 315-330. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X10368587
34. Luna, B. & Sweeney, J. A. (2001). Studies of brain and cognitive maturation through childhood and adolescence: A strategy for testing neurodevelopmental hypotheses. Schizophrenia, Bulletin, 27(3), 443-455. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.schbul.a006886
35. Mancone, S., Celia, G., Zanon, A., Gentile, A., & Diotaiuti, P. (2025). Psychosocial profiles and motivations for adolescent engagement in hazardous games: the role of boredom, peer influence, and self-harm tendencies. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 16, 1527168. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1527168
36. Miller, C. F., Trautner, H. M., & Ruble, D. N. (2006). The role of gender stereotypes in children’s preferences and behavior. In L. Balter & C. S. Tamis-LeMonda (Eds.), Child psychology: A handbook of contemporary issues (pp. 293–323). Psychology Press.
37. Morrongiello, B. A., & Lasenby-Lessard, J. (2007). Psychological determinants of risk taking by children: An integrative model and implications for interventions. Injury Prevention, 13(1), 20–25.
38. Morrongiello, B. A., & Rennie, H. (1998). Why do boys engage in more risk taking than girls? The role of attributions, beliefs, and risk appraisals. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 23(1), 33–43. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/23.1.33
39. Morrongiello, B. A., Zdzieborski, D., & Normand, J. (2004). Understanding gender differences in children’s risk taking and injury: A comparison of mothers’ and fathers’ reactions to sons and daughters misbehaving in ways that lead to injury. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 25(4), 559–579. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2004.07.003
40. Nathanson, C., Riese, A., & McMahon, C. (2013). Age-related differences in children’s risk assessment and risk-taking behavior. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 115(1), 145–158.
41. Piaget, J. (1931/2011). Çocukta karar verme ve akıl yürütme, (Çev.) Sabri Esat Siyavuşgil, Palme.
42. Reniers, R. L., Murphy, L., Lin, A., Bartolomé, S. P., & Wood, S. J. (2016). Risk perception and risk-taking behaviour during adolescence: The influence of personality and gender. PloS one, 11(4), e0153842. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153842
43. Rhea, M. R. Landers, D. M., Alvar, B. A. & Arent, S. M. (2003). The effects of competition and the presence of an audience on weight lifting performance. The Journal of Strength Conditioning Research, 17(2), 303-306. https://doi.org/10.1519/00124278-200305000-00013
44. Ryan, Z. J., Stockill, H., Nesbit, R. J., FitzGibbon, L., & Dodd, H. F. (2024). Parents’ perception of risk in play: Associations with parent and child gender. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 33(8), 2359-2366. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-024-02844-9.
45. Schrieber, J. & Lukin, J. (1978). Communicating road safety to the young pedestrian. traffic accident research unit. Rosebery, New South Wales: Australia.
46. Schwebel, D. C., & Plumert, J. M. (1999). Longitudinal and concurrent relations among temperament, ability estimation, and injury proneness. Child Development, 70(3), 700–712.
47. Siegler, R., DeLoache, J., Eisenberg, N., & Saffran, J. (2017). How children develop (5th ed.). Worth Publishers. Silk, J. S., Sheeber, L., Tan, P. Z., Ladouceur, C. D., Forbes, E. E., McMakin, D. L., ... & Ryan, N. D. (2013). “You can do it!”: The role of parental encouragement of bravery in child anxiety treatment. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 27(5), 439-446.
48. Smith, A. D., Dodd, H. F., Ricardo, L., & van Sluijs, E. (2024). Gender differences in caregivers’ attitudes to risky child play in Britain: A Cross-sectional study. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 21(4), 365-374. https://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.2023-0676
49. Smith, E. W., & Howes, C. (1994). The effect of parents' presence on children’s social interactions in preschool. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 9(1), 45-59.
50. Todd, B. K., Barry, J. A., & Thommessen, S. A. (2017). Preferences for ‘gender‐typed’toys in boys and girls aged 9 to 32 months. Infant and Child Development, 26(3), e1986. https:// doi.org/10.1002/icd.1986
51. Trickey, S., & Topping, K.J. (2004). ‘Philosophy for Children’: A systematic review. Research Papers in Education, 19(3), 365–380. https:// doi.org/10.1080/0267152042000248016
52. Zelazo, P. D., & Müller, U. (2002). Executive function in typical and atypical development. Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Cognitive Development, 445–469.
53. Zelazo, P. D., Müller, U., Frye, D., Marcovitch, S., Argitis, G., Boseovski, J., … Carlson, S. M. (2003). The development of executive function. In U. Müller, J. L. Roebers, & P. D. Zelazo (Eds.), The development of executive function in early childhood (pp. 1–29). Erlbaum.
54. Zeytinoglu, S., White, L. K., Morales, S., Degnan, K., Henderson, H. A., P´erez-Edgar, K., … Fox, N. A. (2025). The roles of parental verbal communication and child characteristics in the transmission and maintenance of social fears. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.14169