Bullying and Temperament in Preschool Children: The Role of Parents’ Emotional Socialization Practices

DÖNBAK E. N., GÜVEN G.

İnönü Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, cilt.27, sa.1, ss.160-174, 2026 (TRDizin)

Özet

The primary aim of this study is to examine parents’ responses to their children’s emotions and the effects of these responses on children’s temperament traits and bullying behaviors. The study was conducted with parents of children aged 3–6 years who attend preschool education institutions. Initially, demographic information was collected from the participants. Subsequently, various measurement instruments were employed during the data collection process. The “Emotional Socialization Scale” was administered to determine parents’ responses to their children’s emotions, while additional scales were used to assess children’s temperament characteristics and bullying or victimization behaviors. Furthermore, children’s age and gender, as well as parents’ educational level and socioeconomic status, were found to significantly influence both parental attitudes and children’s temperament traits. Overall, the results of the study highlight the critical importance of implementing strategies that support emotional socialization within both family and school environments in order to promote healthy social relationships and prevent bullying behaviors. In this context, parental awareness programs, teacher training, and school-based interventions play a crucial role in supporting children’s social and emotional development. The collected data were analyzed within the framework of quantitative research methods. Descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, and regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships among the variables. The findings indicate that parental attitudes toward children’s emotions play a significant role in children’s social relationships, behavioral patterns, and emotional development. In particular, punitive or dismissive responses were found to increase the risk of developing negative temperament traits and were positively associated with bullying behaviors. In contrast, emotion-focused but overly intrusive responses were found to increase the likelihood of children adopting the role of victim.