Comparison of Ego Resiliency of Preschool Children According to the Variable of Divorce

Öz

Resiliency is described as a successful adjustment outcome, process or capacity despite an environment including challenges and threats (Özcan, 2005). Resiliency is a personal quality and power. It is the successful adjustment and recovery against stressful situations (Henderson & Milstein, 1996; Norman, 2000). Some children and youngsters are able to “survive” and continue their interaction with the environment successfully despite various negative events. Such kind of people generally are able to be resilient against stressful events, come through very fast and even become more powerful as a result of problems and negative environmental conditions (Öğülmüş, 2001). Purpose of this study is to reveal whether ego resiliency of children attending preschool education institutions differs according to divorced and not divorced family. The study was conducted in survey method. Two groups of children from the province of Konya were included in the sample group of the study.  The first group involved 70 children from the age group of 5-6 years, with divorced parents. Children live with their mothers. Mothers in this group are supported by the Dost Eli Association both psychologically and economically. The other group of the study involved 92 children from the age group of 5-6 years, whose parents are not divorced. All of the children attend preschools. “Children’s Ego Resiliency Scale” was used to determine their ego resiliency for data collection.  Eisenberg and colleagues adapted Block’s Q-Sort method in 1996 to develop the Children’s Ego Resiliency Scale, which is a measuring instrument that identifies the resiliency level of children. The 12-item scale is used to assess the resiliency level of preschool-primary school children. Adaptation of the scale into Turkish was conducted by Önder and Gülay Ogelman in 2011. Ego resiliency data of children were obtained from mothers during the study. Collection of data lasted about 3 months. The state of divorce does not have a significant effect on the ego resiliency levels of girls and boys in the sample handled. According to the findings obtained, although children with divorced families have lower mean score than children of undivorced families with respect to resilience, no statistically significant difference was found. The reason for this situation may be thought that divorced mothers included 

in study group were provided both psychological and economical support by Friend Hand Association, which is a non-governmental organisation.  There are some limitations in this study, as well. In line with these limitations, following points should be considered in future studies on this subject: This study is limited with sampling groups consisting of 70 children with divorced parents and 92 children with undivorced parents. Such numbers may be increased in future studies. In this study, ego resiliency levels of children were determined according to the views of mothers. In other studies, data should be collected by means of different information sources such as peer views, sociometry and observation. Long-term effects of divorce on children should be determined by using relational survey method and conducting longitudinal studies. This study is limited with the variable of divorce. In future studies, effect of different variables (divorce process, how much time is spent with parents after divorce and how, etc.) regarding divorce should be examined. As well as social development, effect of divorce on other development fields should be investigated. It is required to conduct studies that investigate the effects on quality of the relationship of mother-child and father-child and the development of the child during and after the divorce.  According to the result of the study, it is recommended that family education programs could be prepared aimed at divorced family children and also psychological counselors can support the children in preschool age about the effects of divorce on child. In addition, to minimise divorce effects on children they can benefit from play therapy. In kindergartens, teachers should guide parents in divorce process, deal with children of such families personally, and observe them regularly and continuously. In addition, they should follow carefully general development of children of divorced families especially their social skills, peer relations, and school adjustment, and should immediately intervene in problems.