MATERNAL ÇOCUK YETİŞTİRME TUTUMU VE ERKEN ÇOCUKLUK DÖNEMİNDEKİ DAVRANIŞ PROBLEMLERİ ARASINDAKİ İLİŞKİNİN İNCELENMESİ

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between maternal child rearing attitude and behavioral problems in early childhood. Method: The study is a descriptive research type. The sample of the study consisted of 756 mothers with children enrolled in preschool education in official public schools within the borders of city center in the 2022-2023 academic year. The data were collected with the Personal Information Form, Preschool Behavioral Problems Screening Scale (PBPSS) and Child Raising Attitude Scale (CRAS). The data were transferred to the SPSS 22.0 program and evaluated using descriptive statistical analyses and Pearson Correlation Analysis. Results: 66.7% of the mothers and 45.6% of the fathers were between the ages of 26-35, 54.4% of the mothers and 55.6% of the fathers had undergraduate/graduate education. The mean age (months) of the children was 63.70 (5.59). The mean total score of the PBPSS was 11.63 (5.78). The scores of the mothers on the democratic, authoritarian, protective, and overly tolerant sub-dimensions of the CRAS were 10.51 (2.71); 20.01 (2.15); 21.51 (2.73); and 19.63 (2.44), respectively. In this study, it was determined that behavioral problems in children in families with democratic parental attitudes decreased, while behavioral problems in children in families with authoritarian, protective and overly tolerant attitudes increased (p < 0.05). According to the data, the frequency of problematic behaviors in children increased as the age of the mother and father decreased, the age of the child decreased and the number of siblings increased (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Detection of behavioral problems in the preschool period enables the development and treatment of early interventions. At this point, knowing the effects of parental attitudes on behavioral problems and including parents, especially mothers, in training programs serve to raise healthy children and improve public health.