An examination of the relationship between the psychological resilience levels of children aged 4-6 and their parents' parenting attitudes

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the psychological resilience levels of children aged 4 to 6 and the child-rearing attitudes of their parents. The sample of the study consists of 381 children aged 4 to 6 who were receiving preschool education in schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education in Sakarya province during the 2024–2025 academic year, along with their parents. The data collection tools used in the study included the General Information Form developed by the researcher; the Social-Emotional Well-Being and Psychological Resilience Scale for Preschool Children (PERİK) developed by Mayr and Ulich (2009) and adapted into Turkish by Özbey (2019) through validity and reliability studies; and the Parental Attitudes Toward Child-Rearing Scale (ABTÖ) developed by Ogelman and Özyürek (2021). The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS 24.0 software. The results of the study indicated a statistically significant relationship between the PERİK scale scores and the ABTÖ scale scores. A low-level positive correlation was found between the psychological resilience levels of children aged 4 to 6 and democratic parenting attitudes, whereas a low-level negative correlation was identified with authoritarian and oppressive parenting attitudes. Statistically significant differences were observed in children's psychological resilience levels based on their age, preschool experience, parents' marital status, parents' age, parents' educational level, and parents' occupation. However, no statistically significant differences were found in relation to the child's gender or number of siblings. Additionally, significant differences were found in parenting attitudes based on the child's preschool experience, number of children in the family, parents' age, parents' educational level, and parents' occupation. On the other hand, no statistically significant differences were found with regard to the child's age, gender, or parents' marital status.