Browsing by Author "Hallikainen, Roosa"

The aim of this study is to research how preschool peer relationships affect children’s self-eteem. The effect of number of peer relationships and closeness on self-esteem will also be obser-ved. The study is qualitative but also the methods of numbers are used in the study. A half-structured interview was created and a sociogram was used to collect the data. Seven pre-school children were interviewed and their peer relationships were studied based on the so-ciogram given by the kindergarten teacher of the group. Especially the children with a high level of self-esteem and respect gained from their peers stood out in the study. On the other hand also the children with a low self-esteem and little peer respect from others were highlighted. This study shows that the peer relationships have effect on the self-esteem of children. This is relfected in the answers given by the children as well as the sociogram. The children feel that he amount of peer relationships is more valuable than closeness. Having a lot friends created the feeling of self-epicacy among children. Closeness, though, stood out when analysing the data. It could be seen that the closeness played a significant role when building up the self-esteem of an individual child.