Examination of the relationship between parents, digital parenting awareness and their cognitive flexibility and their methods of rewarding and punishing their children

This research aims to examine the relationship between parents' digital parenting awareness, their cognitive flexibility, and their methods of rewarding and punishing their children. Relational scanning method was used in the research. The study group of the research was determined by the easily accessible sampling method and consists of 615 parents with children aged 18 and under living in Antalya and Hakkâri provinces. The data of the study was obtained online via Google Forms using the Personal Information Form, Digital Parenting Awareness Scale (DPAS), Parenting Reward and Punishment Methods Forms and Cognitive Flexibility Inventory. As a result of normality tests, it was seen that the data was normally distributed. Based on this, Independent samples T test, Anova test, Posthoc tests such as Bonferroni and Games-Howell test, and Pearson Correlation Analysis were used to determine the relationship between the three scales. As a result of the research, there was a statistically significant positive correlation between "Negative modeling", one of the DPAS sub-dimensions, "permission-reward" sub-dimension, which is one of the ways parents reward their children, and "Physical punishment" and "Verbal punishment" sub-dimensions, which are punishment methods, and "Cognitive flexibility" of parents. There is a significant negative relationship between them. There is a significant positive relationship between "Digital neglect", one of the DPAS sub-dimensions, and the "Permission reward" sub-dimension, one of the ways parents reward their children, and the "Verbal punishment" sub-dimension, one of the punishment methods. There is a significant positive correlation between "Efficient use", one of the DPAS sub-dimensions, and "Permission reward" and "Verbal reward" sub-dimensions, which are among the ways parents reward their children, and there is a significant negative correlation between the "Prohibition punishment", "Physical punishment" and "Verbal punishment" sub-dimensions, which are punishment methods. There is a two-way relationship, and there is also a significant positive relationship between it and the "Cognitive Flexibility" of the parents. There is a significant negative relationship between "Protection from risks" and "Permission reward" sub-dimension of the methods of rewarding parents for their children, a positive relationship between the "Activity reward" and "Verbal reward" sub-dimensions, and a negative relationship between the "Physical punishment" and "Verbal punishment" sub-dimensions of punishment methods. There is a significant negative relationship between parents' "Cognitive flexibility" and the "Permission reward" sub-dimension, one of the ways they reward their children, and a positive relationship between the "Verbal reward" sub-dimension. In addition, there is a statistically significant negative relationship between parents' "Cognitive flexibility" and the sub-dimensions of "Prohibition", "Physical" and "Verbal punishment", which are among the methods of punishing their children. The research results were discussed with the findings in the literature and ended with suggestions for research and practice. Keywords: Digital Parenting, Cognitive Flexibility, Reward and Punishment,