Examination of parental attitude, depression and exam anxiety relationship for secondary school eighth grade students

This study's aim is to reveal the relationship between parental attitude, depression and exam anxiety for secondary school eighth grade students. Besides, the effects of variables such as students' sex, age, parents' education levels, whether they take private lessons or not, school success and whether they are pleased with the school or not on parental attitude, depression and exam anxiety are examined. Eighth grade students who study in Balikesir, Edremit are participated to the research. Also, according to identify socio-demographic characteristics of the participants, Personal Information Form, and to evaluate variables, Parental Attitude Scale, Depression Scale for Children and Exam Attitude Inventory are applied by researcher. Mann Whitney- U, and Kruskal Wallis & Spearman Correlation Tests are used in the analysis of data. When the socio-demographic characteristics analyzed, it is found out that girls' depression and exam anxiety levels are higher than boys', girls' perception of parental democratic attitude levels are higher than boys', boys' perception of parental protective and authoritarian attitude levels are higher than girls', and as individuals' age increase, their perception of parental authoritarian attitude levels increase too. There was no meaningful results for socio-demographic features that take a part in the research, such as students' parents' occupations or marital status. In addition, it is seen that as students' exam anxiety levels increase, their perception of parental democratic attitude levels decrease; as exam anxiety level increase, perception of parental protective and authoritarian attitude levels increase; and as their exam anxiety levels increase, their depression levels increase too. In the discussion section, at the end of the research, suggestions for researchers, psychological consultants working on this field had been proposed on research findings.