Examining the effects of marital attitudes on behavioral problems in elementary school children

The aim of this investigation is to examine the effects of mothers' rearing attitudes on behavioral problems of the primary school children. Randomly chosen mothers of 60 girls and 68 boys – totally 128 children's mothers - who continue their education in a private school located in the İstanbul province, participated in this research. The "Parental Attitude Research Instrument-PARI)" and "Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 6-18 (CBCL/6-18)" were administered to mothers of children and ''Demographic Information Form''was used to evaluate the sample group. The correlation coefficient of Mann-Whitney U and Spearman was used for statistical analysis. A significant relationship was found between the rearing attitudes of mothers and behavioral problems of the children. Our results revealed that when the level of mothers'excessive control increased, anxiety/depression levels, social introvertness levels, thought problems and inward orientation levels were also increased in their children. As the democratic attitude level increased, children's agressive behaviors, social problems were also increased. Also, when the repression and discipline levels increased, externalizing behavioral problems were found to be increased in children. Keywords : Examining the Effects of Parental Attitudes, Behavior Problems In Children