Investigation of the effects of attachment styles of parents on neglect and abuse awareness from a social work perspective

Child neglect and abuse is a situation that has a very important place both in the social work literature and in our society, and is frequently encountered, has many social, psychological and behavioral effects on children. The effects of neglect or abuse may occur in the short-term in childhood or in the long-term in adulthood, and these effects may manifest throughout life. Considering the seriousness of the effects of neglect and abuse, the awareness of parents about neglect and abuse is important, which has the most important role in raising children as healthy and adaptable individuals. People who do not have a secure attachment to their parents in childhood are at risk of being neglected or abused. The starting point of the study was to investigate the effects of the attachment styles that individuals have established with their parents on their awareness of neglect and abuse when they have children in their later years. In this study, the effect of parental attachment styles of 0-6 year old children on awareness of neglect abuse was examined from a social work perspective. Snowball technique, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was used in the study, which was carried out with the quantitative research method. The data were obtained from 281 parents who voluntarily agreed to participate in the sociodemographic data form, the Parent Attachment Scale (ABBÖ) and the Parent's Child Neglect and Abuse Awareness Scale (ECIPÖ) and the data collection form created on Google Forms. The data were arranged in Excel and analyzed using the IBM SPSS 25.0 package program. The majority of the participants; women (67.3%), married individuals (95%) and university graduates (66.5%). More than half of the participants, whose average age is 34.25, are parents with an income of 10.000₺ and above (55.5%) and one child (54.4%). The majority of the parents were not educated about neglect and abuse (77.2%), and stated that they were not exposed to abuse (82.6%) or neglect (77.6%). When the findings were examined, it was found that women's awareness was higher. As the age of the parents increases, their awareness decreases. It has been determined that the awareness of university graduate parents is high. It was observed that the awareness of the participants decreased as the number of children increased. The awareness of parents who received educated on neglect and abuse issues was found to be high. Awareness of parents who state that they have been exposed to abuse or neglect is increasing. In addition, it has been determined that parents with high income levels have a high level of attachment to their mothers. It has been determined that university graduate parents have a high level of attachment to their mothers and fathers. It was determined that parents who stated that they were exposed to abuse or neglect in their childhood had a high level of attachment to both their mothers and fathers. When we came to the starting point of the problem of the research, a negative relationship was found between the parental child neglect and abuse awareness scale, and the mother and father form of the parent attachment scale, but it was concluded that there was no significant relationship. A positive and significant relationship was found between the mother and father forms of the attachment to parents scale. It was determined that as the level of attachment of the parents towards their mothers increased, the level of attachment towards their fathers also increased. The findings of the study show the importance of the unity of the parents in attachment to the mother and father, and the importance of education in the formation of neglect and abuse awareness. Keywords: Child neglect, child abuse, attachment theory, awareness, social work.