The study of the family functions, mother-child relations of lower and upper socioeconomic families and the effect of the family functions to mother-child relations

iiABSTRACTThis study has been conducted in order to study the family function of lower and uppersocioeconomic families with kids at the age of 6, mother - child relations and the effects of thefamily function to the mother - child relations. The sampling of the study constitutes of childrenand mothers of 11 kindergartens randomly selected in accordance with the Ankara ProvinceCankaya and Ke9ioren central districts population information and the number ofkindergarten students of the Ankara Province Directorate of National Education OfficialElementary Schools Kindergarten classes. A total of 390 children and their mothersconsisting of 169 children and their mothers from the lower socioeconomic class and 221children and their mothers from the upper socioeconomic class have been included in the study.The Personal Information Forms were used in order to gather data about the demographicinformation; Family Evaluation Criterion (FEC) in order to evaluate the family functions andParental Acceptance - Rejection Questionnaire - Mother Form (PARQ) has been used toevaluate the mother - child relations. The S.P.S.S. statistical program undertakes theanalysis of the data gathered. The demographic information of the families has been issuedwith their percentage and dispersals; the relations between the functions of family relations andmother - child relations with the independent variables has been given with duplex varianceanalysis; the family function and mother - child relation has been tested with the Correlationtechnique. When semantic discriminations were found, the Scheffe Test was used in order todetermine the group causing this discrimination.It has been determined that the socioeconomic level is a determining factor in the familyfunction and mother - child relations, and that semantic discriminations exist in familyfunctions and mother - child relations between the socioeconomic levels (p < 0.05).It has been determined that family functions show semantic discriminations betweensocioeconomic level groups; and that upper socioeconomic level families showunhealthier functions for Family Evaluation Criterion, roles, showing emotional reactions,behavior control and general functions dimensions; while lower socioeconomic level familiesshow unhealthier functions for problem solving and showing the required affection (p <0.05). While no semantic discriminations for family functions weren't found for themothers age, household size, house types, number of children, the gender of the children, themarriage age of the parents and the duration of the marriage (p > 0.05); semanticdiscriminations were found for the fathers age, the education level of the parents and theirmarriage methods (p < 0.05).It has been determined that mothers from the lower socioeconomic levels showunhealthier functions in all levels in comparison to the upper socioeconomic level mothers (p< 0.05); that the age of the mothers, their vocational groups and the gender of the childrendoesn't affect mother - child relation (p > 0.05); and that theeducation level of the mothers, the family types (household size) and number of childrenaffects mother - child relations semantically (p < 0.05).When the effects of family functions on the mother - child relations are examined, it isdetermined that all levels of semantic interaction exists except for communication, affection andlove interactions, and that some of them are positive while some of them are negative (p <0.05).