Adaptation of young children to a preschool educational institution as an object of interdisciplinary research: Analysis of socio-psychological factors

Abstract

Introduction. The Federal State Educational Standard sets out stringent requirements to educational programmes implemented by preschool educational institutions (PEIs). This results in an increased number of studies into the theoretical aspects and practical indicators of the quality of services provided by PEIs. This study focuses on adaptation of young children to preschool programmes and aims to identify the psychological factors that impede such adaptation. The study specifically focuses on the features of the relationship of children who have difficulties in adapting to a PEI with teachers and parents.

Materials and methods. 100 mothers and 46 educators were examined. The diagnostic set of the study included:

• For educators: Questionnaire “EmIn” (D. V. Lyusin), Individual Typological Test (L. N. Sobchik), Questionnaire “Communicative Control” (M. Schneider), Questionnaire “Communicative Tolerance” (V. V. Boyko), Motivation of Approval (D. Crown and J. Marlowe), Diagnostics of the Level of Development of Reflexivity (A. V. Karpov).
• For parents: the questionnaire for the study of the emotional side of parent-child interaction (E. I. Zakharova), the methodology for the study of child-parental relations PARI (E. S. Schaefer, R. K. Bell), the questionnaire for the analysis of family education (E. G. Eidemiller, V. V. Yustitskis), the questionnaire for determining the types of parental relations (A. Ya. Varga, V. V. Stolin).

Research results. The study allowed us to describe the relationships between children with PEI adaptation difficulties and their mothers—specifically, these relationships are characterized by overprotection on the part of the mother against the background of the child’s acceptance and emotional involvement in interaction with him. We also highlighted a complex of primarily significant qualities that teachers should have in order to productively communicate with PEI pupils: the ability to reflect, increased level of emotional intelligence, decreased level of emotional lability, and decrease of the level of anxiety. In the course of approbation, it was shown that the complex allows the teacher to interact with young children more effectively, and as a result, provides an increase in the quality of preschool education in general.

Conclusion. The study concluded that adaptation of young children is a systemic phenomenon with characteristic signs and manifestations. The result of the study is a theoretical substantiation and empirical proof that the main psychological factors that negatively affect the manifestations of the adaptation process in preschool education in young children include the peculiarities of mothers’ attitude towards their children and the specifics of the interaction of the teaching staff with children.

The study reveals the need to further research the adaptation to preschool education as a complex phenomenon. The study also makes it possible to identify practical indicators of the relationship between the severity of the adaptation period, on the one hand, and the specifics of child-mother interaction and child-PEI teacher interaction, on the other hand.