Destek ağları, yüksek seviyede depresif semptomlar gösteren annelere yardım edebilir mi?

This thesis aims to investigate the association between support that a mother is receiving from her husband, family, friends, neighbors and her parenting practices. However, the presence or absence of social support may predict other important maternal attributes such as maternal psychological well being. Therefore, psychological well being might appear as an important factor on the relation between social support and parenting practices. The proposed conceptual model suggests the role of psychological well-being as a moderator in the causal relation between support coming from the husband and parenting practices and in the causal relation between support coming from other sources and parenting practices. The conceptual model is tested by using questionnaire data provided by ECDET (Early Childhood Developmental Ecologies in Turkey) project from a national sample of 1,052 mothers living in Turkey, who have 3 year-old children. Findings revealed that regardless of the type of support that is present or absent, total number of sources from which the mothers receive high level of support is related to punishment and obedience demanding behaviors of the mother and the level of warmth that she shows to her child. In case of a highly depressed mother, the positive effect of the number of sources of support on parenting practices disappears. However, punishment and obedience demanding behaviors of the mothers with low levels of depressive symptoms decrease as number of sources from which they receive support increases. Therefore, number of sources of support does not operate as a protective factor for highly depressed mothers, but it operates as a protective factor for mothers who show sub-clinical levels of depressive symptoms.