Examination of Preschool Children's Social Information Processing Skills in Terms of Attention and Emotion Regulation Skills

Year 2025, Volume: 12 Issue: 4, 82 - 99, 01.07.2025

Ebru Doğan Marsak , Devlet Alakoç

https://doi.org/10.17275/per.25.50.12.4

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Social information processing , emotion regulation , attention

Ethical Statement

Prior to the commencement of data collection, approval was obtained from the Selçuk University Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Non-Interventional Clinical Research Ethics Committee on 12/07/2023 (decision number 2023-663).

References

• 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
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• 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
• 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.
• Çubukçu, Z. & Gültekin, M. (2006). Social skills that need to be gained by primary school students. Bilig (37), 155-174
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• 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
• Erden, M., & Akman, Y. (1998). Development-Learning-Teaching: Educational Psychology. Ankara, Türkiye: Arkadaş Yayınları.
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• 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
• 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
• George. D. & Mallery. P. (2019). IBM SPSS Statistics 26 Step By Step: A Simple Guide And Reference. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429056765
• 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
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• Karasar, N. (2011). Scientific Research Method (22nd ed.). Ankara, Türkiye: Nobel.
• Kaymak, S. (1995). Attention focusing studies in five-year-old children attending kindergarten (Unpublished master's thesis). Ankara University, Ankara, Türkiye.
• 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
• 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
• 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
• Lim, K. G. (2002). Executive functioning, social information processing, and social competence in school-age children (Unpublished doctoral dissertation).Pennsylvania State University
• 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
• 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
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• 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
• Parasuraman, R. (2000). Attention as selection. The American Journal of Psychology, 113(1), 135. doı:10.2307/1423464.
• Pessoa, L. (2008). On the relationship between emotion and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(2), 148-158. doi: 10.1038/nrn2317.
• 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
• Raatz, U., &Möhling, R. (1971). Frankfurter tests für fünfjährige-konzentration: FTF-K. Weinheim: Beltz.
• 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.
• Rothbart,M., K. (1989). Biological processes in temperament. Temperament in Childhood, 77, 110.
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• 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
• Tabachnick, B. G., Fidell, L. S., & Ullman, J. B. (2013). Using multivariate statistics (Vol. 6, pp. 497-516). Boston, MA: Pearson.
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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