Attachment styles in 6th grade students and perceived parental attitudes

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between the perceived parental attitudes, some demographic characteristics and the attachment styles of the 6th grade students at the beginning of the adolescence period in general by drawing attention to the importance of the attachment styles we have developed according to the nature of our attachment and relationships as the result of our initial relationships with parents or caregivers during infancy. The population of the study consisted of a total of 297 students, 133 boys and 164 girls who were studying in the 6th grades of the Atışalanı Middle School, the Örfi Çetinkaya Middle School and the Yunus Emre Middle School in Esenler, Istanbul. These schools in participated in this study represents the universe of the study. A total of 302 participants, 132 male and 170 female, who are 6th grade students voluntarily participated in the research. However, the questionnaires of 5 of these students were deemed invalid because the students made more than one marking on the same question. For the analyze of the data, 'Parental Attitudes Scale' to interpret parental attitudes, 'Personal Information Form' developed by researcher to gather personal information of the participants and 'Relationship Scales Questionnaire – RSQ' used as data collection tool. In data analysis, numbers, percentages, average were used as complementary statistical methods and findings were obtained by applying t test, anova, scheffe test, pearson correlation and regression analysis. The conclusion is that the perceived parental attitudes do not affect secure and informal bonding. According to the perceptions of the students participating in the study, there was no statistically significant difference between the average scores of the parents' attitudes and attachment styles. The relationships between perceived parental attitudes and some demographic variables, as well as relationships between some demographic variables and attachment styles was investigated. Keywords: Perceived parental attitudes, attachment styles, adolescence.