The effect of training seminars given to parents who have 5-7 year-old children on parent-child relationship

This study aimed to investigate the effects of the parent education programmes on the relationship between the parents who had 5-7 year-old children and their children. The parent education programmes were about the developmental areas of children, spending efficient time with children, communication with children, peer relations, child behavior problems and ways of coping with those, parents' attitudes, developing child's behavior and habit formation. The population of the study was consisted of parents of five-seven year-old children who were at the kindergartens and first graders affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in Malatya during the 2013-2014 academic year. The sample included 200 parents who had 5-7 year-old children who were at kindergarten or at the first grade. Of the parents who participated in the study, 100 constituted the experimental group and the remaining 100 constituted the control group. In order to identify the effects of parent education on the relationship between the parents and children, the pretest-posttest experimental design was used. The programme took place once a week and approximately took two hours for 8 weeks. The Turkish version of "The Parental Acceptance Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ) " was used as pre and posttest to elicit information about perceived warmth/affection (or coldness, lack of warmth), hostility-aggression, indifference-neglect, and undifferentiated rejection of parents on their child. The data gathered in this survey has been analyzed using SPSS 21.0 software (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Descriptive statistical methods ( number, percentage average and standard deviation) were used in evaluating the data. To compare different groups, the independent samples t test was used. One-way ANOVA test was used to compare the groups more than two. In order to determine the source of difference, Tukey Post Hoc test was used. Findings of the study indicated that as a result of parent training program, there was meaningful difference in perceived warmth/affection (or coldness, lack of warmth), hostility-aggression, indifference-neglect, and undifferentiated rejection of the parents who participated the parent education programme. Key Words: Parent Education Programmes, Mother-Child Relations, Early childhood