Abstract:

The goal of the research was to determine children's behaviours during social isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. For the needs of the research, a questionnaire about preschool children’s behaviour named the Behaviour Evaluation Scale was designed and implemented; modified according to the Social Competence and Behaviour Evaluation Scale (SCBE, LaFreniere & Dumas, 1995). The questionnaire consists of three subscales which entail children's social competences and their internalised and externalised behavioural problems. The sample included 275 parents of children from 1.8 to 6.9 years of age (Mage = 4.5). The results indicate lower evaluation of the children's social competences during social isolation in comparison with the time before the introduction of this epidemiological measure, and low prevalence of internalised and externalised behavioural problems. Furthermore, the results of the regression analysis show that, of all the independent variables, only gender is a statistically significant predictor (p=,013), and only of externalised behavioural problems. This research provides the opportunity of comparing the obtained results to those from similar research aiming to clarify preschool children's behaviours in the conditions of social isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords:

COVID-19, externalised behavioural problems, internalised behavioural problems, early childhood, social competences.