GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY LEVEL IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Preschool period is a time of significant transition in a child's life. Children learn and master motor abilities that help them interact and communicate with their social environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences between genders, regarding social emotional development and physical activity level. In order to obtain necessary data parents of preschool children were asked to complete questionnaires assessing social emotional development of their children (ASQ:SE-2, Squires, Bricker, & Twombly, 2015) and a questionnaire about physical activity (NPAQ, Bozanic, 2011) of their children. Obtained results show a statistically significant gender differences both in physical activity and social emotional development. Girls were assessed as having higher level of social- emotional development than boys. According to parental assessments, physical activity in general, was in favor of boys, who are more physically active then girls.