An investigation of the values perceived by children from single parent emigrated families

This study aimed to determine the perceived values of single parent children whose parents emigrated from Aksaray city centre or from its villages for various reasons. The population of this study consisted of middle school students enrolled in different public schools that are located in the centre of Aksaray city. The sample of this study included 122 middle school students (aged between11-15) enrolled in seven different public middle schools. The participants were selected by using a non-random sampling strategy: purposeful sampling. In this study, mixed design research methodology was used to analyze quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data was gathered by using the ?Portrait Values Scale? (PVS) developed by Schwartz and his colleagues (2001). Qualitative data was gathered by having students write down their ideas as a response to an open ended question. Quantitative data was analyzed by using SPSS 18 software and the written records of students were analyzed by using document analysis technique. Quantitative findings of the study were reported through percentages and frequencies of students? PVS scores. The findings of this study showed that being religious, being healthy, doing a favour, being respectful to elders, being neat, and preserving the nature were among the most frequent perceived values while being wealthy, enjoying life, taking a risk and being a leader were among the least frequent ones.In addition, the findings showed that students? PVS scores were not significantly different in terms of their gender, grade level and parent education level. Besides, PVS scores showed no significant difference in terms of students? age, parents? education level and parents? occupation. The qualitative findings of the study showed that students were willing to see 43 different values in the people living around them. Among them, the following 12 values were mostly preferred by the students: tolerance, justice, being understanding, helpfulness, kindness, courtesy, love, respect, and peacefulness, being sensitive to nature, neatness and honesty