Investigation of anxiety and depression levels of children between 9-12 years of children

Family is the first and perhaps the most significant factor affecting the development of schemas of a person as regards an individual's perceiving and evaluating the world and reacting in line with this evaluation in addition to cognitive beliefs thereof. Inasmuch as it is known that disintegration and fragmentation of family is a serious stressor for the person, various studies are carried out to try to determine how and to what extent such stress affects an individual's mental state. This research has been conducted with children aged 9-12 years since it is a known fact that the first symptoms of mental problems generally appear during adolescence and psychological issues begin or manifest themselves with various symptoms predominantly during adolescence. This study has been conducted with an eye to investigate the effect of being the member of a fragmented family on psychological status on children of this age period. The conduction objective of the study was to investigate the anxiety and depression levels of girls and boys in the age group of 9-12 arising from the death one of their parents or one of their parents' leaving the house, or divorce of the parents. The sample of the research was determined by virtue of random selection method among the children of 9-12 year old of the families who applied for support to the Social and Economic Center of Esenyurt Social Services Center of the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services located in Esenyurt district of Istanbul between the dates of 01st.01.2019 and 01st.05.2019. The participants were evaluated through utilization of Depression Scale for Children, Continuity Anxiety Scale for Children and Demographic Information Form. As a result of the evaluation, significant relationship was found between age and anxiety level while there was no significant relationship between age and depression level and parents' being alive or dead had a significant effect on anxiety levels on participants, the year of death of the parents, there was a significant effect on the levels of anxiety and depression and knowing the cause of the parents' separation divorce had a significant effect on the levels of anxiety and depression. Keys Words: Family, Shattered family, Depression, Anxiety