The research abouth the depression levels of children who have divorced and undivorced parents and its effect to their school achievement

Divorce which exist for centuries and goes further with indutrialism and reaches the peak point for the last twenty years effects not only divorced parents but also the children exposed to divorce both pozitively and negatively. With this research depression levels of children aging between 9-13 and the reflection of this case to their school performances are questioned. The sample consist of 63 female, 54 male totaly 117 children who have divorced families and 68 female and 59 male totaly 127 chilren who have undivorced families. Children are selected from 9 different official school in Izmir city center. In the research for collecting data "Depression Scale for Children" which is improved by Kovacs (1981) and adaptation done by Öy (1991) for Turkey is used. In addition "Personel Data Form" which is improved by the researcher and constructs the sub-findings of the research is used. In research to be expected to answer about depression levels of children being appropriate with main problemand their school achievements are analyzed according to variables found with pesrsonel data form. In data analysis, aricmetic averages, standart deviations are fixed, in suitable places t test, variation analysis and correlate, in interpretationTukey, Scheffe and LSD advenced analysis metods are applied. Some significiant result can be summarized as a result of evaluating research datum: 1- According to the frequency in which chilren see their mother or father with whom he/she doesn't stay, the difference between the children's depression scale points are found meaninful. * 2- The difference between the school achievement points of divorced and undivorced families' children are found meaningful.xvn 3- According to the children's birth order, the difference between the school achievement points of divorced and undivorced families' children are found meaningful. 4- According to where brothers/sisters stay, the difference between the school achievement points of divorced families' children are found meaningful. 5- Dependent upon the case in which mother's or father's relation with their new partner, the difference between the school achievement points of divorced families' children are found meaningful. 6- Depending upon the person who told the divorce decision, the difference between the school achievement points of divorced families' children are found meaningful. 7- Depending upon the self-accussion for the divorce case, the difference between the school achievementpoints of divorced families' children are found meaningful. Key Words: Divorce, Child Depression, School Achievement