Self-Regulation Skills and Peer Preferences in Preschool Children

The preschool period is recognized as a crucial phase for fostering the social development of children. Self-regulation during the developmental period contributes to management skills in social contexts and thus helps establish positive standards of behavior for peer relationships. Effective interventions can improve self-regulation skills. The main purpose of this study is to detect the predictive impact of self-regulation skills on peer relationships in preschool children. The participants consisted of 165 children of Turkish extraction (between the ages of 5 and 6). 81 of them were girls, and 84 were boys. The Self-Regulation Skills Scale for Children aged 4-6 (Teacher Form) and the sociometry technique based on peer nomination were utilized. The study results asserted that young children's self-regulation variables (inhibitory control, attention, and working memory) influenced their levels of being positively and significantly liked by peers. Moreover, young children's self-regulation variables (inhibitory control, attention, and working memory) affected their levels of being negatively and significantly disliked by peers. Also, inhibitory control, attention, and working memory significantly predicted the levels of social preference.