Investigation of relation between parents social problem solving tendency and children's sense of self

The main aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the tendencies of parents towards problem solving and children?s sense of self. The scope of this study which was designed as a descriptive study were 6 year-old preschool students who are enrolling in the pre-schools in the central districts of Antalya in 2011-2012 academic year and their the parents. The sample of the present which study consisted of 120 randomly selected pre-school students and their parents (n=240) from nine pre-schools in the city center of Antalya.The data gathering instruments of this study are Demographic information forms, Social Problem Solving inventory and Demoulin?s sense of self test for children. In the analysis of the data, independent t-test and one way ANOVA is used to examine the relationship between the variables.The findings of the study revealed that in terms of social problem solving tendencies, fathers tend to show more affective behaviors than the mothers. It is found that there is not a significant difference in terms of the diagnosing, decision making and generating solutions for the social problem solving tendencies of the parents, however, there is a significant difference in terms of offering options (p>.001).The findings of the study also revealed that the more mothers able to solve problems the less students? sense of self and self-efficacy levels; whereas there is not any relationship between fathers? problem solving abilities and children?s sense of self levels.