Investigation of Coping Strategies Used in Problem Situation by Preschool Children

Individuals faced with many problems that will create stress, fear or anxiety throughout their lives. In this case coping strategies used by individuals vary. Some individuals are looking for solutions to dealing directly with the problem, while others prefer to move away from the problem by ignoring case. But in any case, this strategy which individuals use has the power to affect the roles of in adulthood. In this context, the strategies which used by children at an early age in problem situations are important to identify. This research aims to determine the coping strategies used in problem situation by preschool children. Using the case study method, one of the qualitative research methods and data was collected from 32 preschoolers who attend a government early childhood education center which depends on MoNE in Kars. An illustrated storybook written by Ferit Avc？ whose name is “K？rm？z？ Fili G？rdünüz mü? (Have You Seen the Red Elephant?)” used as a data collecting tool in this study. Children were asking to produce lots of solutions for the problem situation at the end of this book. These strategies across problem used by children analyzed according to their coping strategy categories as active-cognitive, active-behavioral and avoidant. It is determined that preschool children who attend the preschool education institution use more active-behavioral strategies to cope with their problem situations. In this period, children can define, experience and evaluate these strategies through the activities that will be included in the training flow