Examination of the opinions of parents who have children attending preschool education on their children's participation rights

This study aimed to examine the views of parents of 48-66 month old children attending preschool education regarding their children's participation rights. A parallel design, which is a convergent mixed method design, was used in the research. The study group of the quantitative part of the research consisted of a total of 200 parents of children aged 48-66 months who were studying in the kindergartens of official independent kindergartens and primary schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education in the 2024-2025 academic year, and the study group of the qualitative part consisted of a total of 6 parents. In the study, the General Information Form prepared by the researcher was used as the data collection tool, and the Child Participation Scale and Parent Interview Form were used to determine the parents' views on children's right to participation. In the study, independent sample T-test, One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the quantitative data, and content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. It was concluded that parents' views on children's participation rights differ significantly according to their children's previous school attendance, parents' profession, education level, and marital status, but do not differ significantly according to their children's gender, age, or parents' age and gender. It has been determined that parents are aware of the need to communicate with and respect their children in order to support child participation in the family, but they need guidance regarding situations in which they can give their children the right to speak.