The transformation of parenthood and socio-cultural origins of the paranoid parenting

In the historical process, the definition of family, parenting and childhood has changed. The meanings attributed to the child and childhood have changed as well. As an main social institution the family emerged with the transition to settled life which has gained a universal character and has been able to survive for thousands of years. Because of their primary role in the process of the providing and transferring of the cultural values between generations, the family and parenthood have been a very important research subject (Nomaguchi K., ve Milkie M.A., 2017; Chan, T. W ve Koo, A., 2011 ). Structural changes and transformations in the social field directly or indirectly affect the way people think, their attitudes and behaviours. This process transforms not only the relationships between parents, but also the position of the child in the family and in the community. As a new parenting style the 'paranoid parenting' has emerged in the western Europe during the late 1990s. It has gained increasing visibility in Turkey since the mid-2000s as well. As can be expected, this development has turned parenting into a task that needs to be learned from the beginning, as well as paving the way for widespread fear, anxiety and paranoiac parenting. The aim of the research is to reveal the sociocultural causes of the paranoid parenting and to investigate how this process reflected on to the parents' ways of thinking, attitudes, behaviours and in their everyday practices. The purpose of the study is to reveal the sociocultural causes of the so-called paranoid parenting, and to determine what this reflects on the parents' ways of thinking, attitudes and behaviours, and daily life practices. In the study, a questionnaire was applied to 341 parents who were selected based on quantitative research method and quota sampling. Interviews with parents residing in Aydın province, who are 18 years old and over, married and have children under 25 years old, were interviewed. The research problematic has been examined in three contexts. The first context is considered as the definition and the history of family, child and childhood as well as changing meanings which has been attributed to childhood. Understanding the definition and history of the family and the child is an important issue that must be understood before talking about parenting processes in the research. The second context is to evaluate individuals' lives through the negative meanings attributed to the risks, and to evaluate their ways of thinking and daily life practices from the perspective of the risk society. The third axis of the research is focused on, in the historical context, parenting attitudes and definitions from past to present, the effect of expertise on social life and other processes that are effective in the emergence of paranoid parenting. KEY WORDS: Family, Child, Parenthood, Paranoia, Risk, Trust.