Do Fathers Effects the Social Skills of Preschool Children: An Experimental Study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a Father Training Program (FTP) on the social skills of pre-school children. The study was carried out in two preschools in the central province of Kilis in Turkey. A pretest-posttest control group experimental design was implemented in this study. Both the study group and the control group consisted of 40 preschool children and their fathers from different preschools. The FTP was implemented with fathers in the experimental group for twelve weeks, but the FTP was not applied to the fathers in the control group. In this study, Social Skills Assessment Scale (SSAS) was used. Data were collected by preschool teachers before and after FTP. Covariant analysis with one factor (ANCOVA) and t test were used to analyze the data. At the end of the FTP, it was observed that there were statistically significant differences between the children in the control group and experimental group in terms of their level of social skills (p<.01). It was observed that the difference between the mean scores of post-test and retention tests of the children in the experimental group was insignificant and the effect of the FTP was continuing. This shows that training program including fathers has an effect on children's social skills.