Awareness and attitudes of parents and educators toward abuse and neglect of preschool children

The purpose of this research is to examine the awareness and attitudes of parents and preschool teachers towards neglect and abuse of preschool children. For this purpose, the study aims to examine the relationship between gender, age, economic level, marital status, education level, knowledge and training on neglect and abuse, professional experience for educators, number of children for parents and different attitudes and awareness of child neglect and abuse. In the data collection phase of this study, the Personal Information Form, which includes information on demographic characteristics such as gender, socioeconomic status, number of children, and education level, the Parental Attitude Scale (Demir ve Şendil, 2008: 16), and the Parental Awareness of Child Abuse and Neglect Scale (Ünal ve Boz, 2020: 22) were used. In addition, it is thought that awareness and attitudes towards neglect and abuse will contribute to the literature by examining parents and educators together. The population of the study was determined as the Southeastern Anatolia region and it was aimed that preschool teachers and parents with children aged 3-6 years would participate in the study. The sample of the study consisted of 298 parents and 296 preschool teachers who participated in the survey. Statistical analysis of the data collected in the study was conducted using IBM SPSS 29.0. Data analysis included independent sample T test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and regression analysis. The study results are summarized: It has been observed that women have more democratic attitudes and higher levels of awareness of child neglect and abuse than men. It was observed that the average overprotective attitude scores of those who did not have training regarding neglect and abuse were higher. It is seen that as parents grow older, they move away from the democratic attitude and adopt an authoritarian attitude. It has been determined that those with overly protective attitudes are at low economic levels. It seems that parents with fewer children have more democratic attitudes. It can be concluded that as professional experience increases, there is a transition from an overprotective attitude to a permissive attitude.