The assessment of self-esteem and mental health variables of the parental divorce children in comparison to the non- parental divorce children

The statement of the problem: The purpose of this study is to analyze possible effects of children of parental divorce, by focusing on the relationships between various mental health variables such as self-esteem and anxiety/depression, social introversion, somatic complaints, aggressive behavior against rules, social problems, thought problems and attention problems compared to children of non-parental divorce. At the same time, it was aimed to analyze with examining deeply the mentioned differences between the children of parental divorce and the children of the non-parental divorce by examining the variables of social activity, social functioning and school functioning. Method: The sample of this study, with a total of 134 participants, is composed of 11-16 years old children of the parental divorced and non-parental divorced. In order to assess participants' mental health variables, The Self-Assessment Questionnaire ''Youth Self-Report'' (YSR) was used for the participants between the ages of 11-18 and in order to assess participants' self-esteem variable, The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory was used. Results: It was benefited from Independent samples t-test to compare the scores that the individuals who are parental divorce children and non-parental divorce children, got from the questionnaires. When the P values, obtained from test results, are examined. It was determined that the scores, which were obtained from the subscale of Anxiety / Depression (p<0.001), Social Introversion (p<0.01), Somatic Complaints (p<.05), Aggressive Behaviors (p<0.001), Social Problems (p<0.001) and Attention Problems (p<0.01), did not display a significant difference (p<.05). Besides the obtained findings, it was determined that the scores which were obtained from the subsclaes of aggressive behavior against rules (p>0.5) and thought problems (p>.05), did not display a significant difference (p>.05). It was determined that the scores, obtained from the self-esteem (p<0.001) inventory along with social activity (p<.05), social functioning (p<0.001) and school functioning (p<.01) were lower for the children of the parents divorced and displayed a significant difference (p< 0.05). Conclusion: As a result, mental health variables and self-esteem were obtained in the direction of may be effective on the children of parental divorce and the possible effects of divorce on children have been clarified a little more in this study. When all findings are evaluated, it is proposed that future studies focus on various mental health variables, since the diversity of mental health variables is limited in the literature. Key words: Divorce, self-esteem, mental health, divorce and child, the effects of divorce on child