Investigation of the relationship between the perception of parent attitudes, the skills of empathy and self-respect in children driven to criminal activities

Our research was carried out in order to examine the relationship between selfesteem and empathy skills of perceived mother and father attitudes of 140 delinquent children aged 13 to 18 years. Despite the fact that there has been an increase in juvenile delinquency lately, considering the limited number of studies on this subject, our study is important in terms of enabling early intervention by creating profiles of juvenile delinquents. The research is a quantitative study that includes relational data analysis. As a result of the results obtained in the study, the effects of parental attitudes on the self-esteem and empathic development levels of the children driven to crime were examined. The sample of the study consists of 140 juvenile delinquents who were requested by the judges to prepare a social examination report by experts in Kocaeli Courthouse. The 'KA-SI Empathy Tendency Scale Adolescent Form', 'Parental Attitude Scale' and 'Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale' were used in the study. Since the aim is to measure the parental attitude perceived by the children, the information in the parental attitude scale was obtained from the child. In the research findings; It was concluded that as the authoritarian parental attitude perceived by the children increased, the self-esteem of the child decreased, and the level of empathy of the children who were dragged into crime who had the perception that their mothers had a democratic attitude was significantly higher. It was concluded that there was no significant difference between their perceived father attitudes and their total empathy score. Keywords: Child delinquent, self-esteem, empathy, parental attitude