Factors Classifying School Adjustment of Children With and Without Special Needs in Inclusive Preschools

Abstract

This study investigated the factors predicting the school adjustment of Turkish preschool children with and without special needs by assessing the school adjustment, social skills, developmental functions, problem behaviors, and cognitive skills of 122 children from 53 preschool classes in 13 public preschools, as well as teacher-child and teacher-parent relationships. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze data to identify the main predictors of school adjustment. The children’s classification structure was then modeled using a Chi-squared automatic interaction detector (CHAID) analysis, considering both their important predictors and school adjustment levels. The findings revealed that the children’s social skills were the most critical predictor of school adjustment. The decision tree created based on the results of the CHAID analysis classified the levels of school adjustment of children with different levels of social skills in terms of parent-teacher relations, developmental functions, and problem behaviors.