The examination of the relationship between the self-esteem of pre-school teacher candidates and their liking of children

This study is designed to determine the relationship between self-esteem of pre-school teacher candidates and their liking of children. The study group of this study is composed of 339 pre-school teacher candidates studying at early childhood education departments of Mevlana, Necmettin Erbakan and Selcuk Universities located in Konya. In this study, in order to measure the self-esteem of pre-school teacher candidates, ‘‘Coopersmith Self-Esteem Scale’’ developed by Coopersmith in 1967 and to measure love of children, ‘‘Barnett Liking of Children Scale’’ developed by Barnett and Sinisi in 1990 were used. Questionnaire results were analyzed by SPSS/WINDOWS 16.0 statistical toolbox. Based on the analysis results, gender and class have a positive effect on self-esteem and liking of children. In addition, a mid-level positive correlation is determined between self-esteem and liking of children.