(PRESCHOOL EDUCATION AND ABSTRACTS
SAMPLE)
EXAMINATION OF THE ATTITUDES OF MOTHERS AND FATHERS TOWARDS
PRESCHOOL CHILDREN
Zuhal BEGDE, Arzu ÖZYÜREK
Abstract: Introduction: Children show fairly rapid development in the preschool period that
covers the first six years of life and they are more affected by the environment. For children,
the first and the most important environment is composed of mothers and fathers. In various
studies performed on mother-father-child interaction which starts with birth, it has been
specified that there are significant associations between particularly mother-child interaction
and the child development. Family is the most influential environment for the socialization in
preschool period when the personality begins to shape. The child-rearing attitudes of the
mother and the father are very important for the healthy development of the personality in the
preschool period. Recently, additional to roles of mothers, child care and education
responsibilities of fathers have also been increased. Therefore, it is very crucial to pay
attention not only on attitudes of mothers but also on effects of fathers’ attitudes in the child
development. Aim: This study has been performed to examine the attitudes of mothers and
fathers in terms of the development of preschool children. In this general context, the answers
to some questions were evaluated. The questions were; “Are the child-rearing attitudes of
mothers and fathers affected by variables such as their age, education and occupation?”, “Are
the child-rearing attitudes of mothers and fathers affected by variables such as the gender of
children and the family structures?” and “Is there any significant relationship between the
attitudes of mothers and the fathers?” Materials and Methods: The mothers and fathers of
120 children who were attending to the official pre-school institutions), were randomly
selected and included in this descriptive study. The %37.5 of the mothers were in the 30-34
age group and %35 of the fathers were in the 35-39 age group. The %34.2 of the mothers and
%41.7 of the fathers were graduated from high school. The %65.8 of the mothers were
housewife and %30 of the fathers had a freelance work. The %85 of the families were nuclear
family and %15 of the families had the extended family structure. In order to collect the data,
we used personal information form and "Parental Attitude Scale" which was developed by
Karabulut, Demir and Sendil in 2008 in order to determine the attitudes of the fathers and
mothers towards their preschool children. These data collection tools were provided to fathers
and mother via preschool teachers and they were collected by following the same way. In the
data analyses, the normality distribution of the data was examined and Student-t test or OneWay ANOVA tests were used accordingly. In order to determine the differences between
variables, Tukey test was used. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated and analyzed
in order to examine the associations between the attitudes of mothers and fathers. Results: In
this study, it has been shown that there exists statistically significant relationship between the
mothers’ parent-attitude scores and their age groups (p<0,05). It has been observed that the
scores of mothers that belong to 35-39 age groups are significantly higher than the scores of
the mother who belong to 30-34 and 40-45 age groups. In general, the other variables such as
education level of mothers, their occupation status, gender of children and the family structure
are found as statistically insignificant in explaining the attitudes of mothers with respect to
their children (p>0,05). When the analysis has been carried out for sub-dimensions, it has
been observed a significant relationship between the over-protectiveness attitude of mothers
and their education level (p<0,01). For instance, this attitude is found to be significantly lower
for the mothers who have a university degree compared to the scores of mothers who have a
primary education degree. Another finding is that it has been observed a significant
relationship between the permitting-attitude of mothers and the gender of children (p<0,05).
Such that, mothers who have a female-baby tend to have more permitting behavior than the
mothers who have a male-baby. It has been found a statistically significant relationship
between fathers’ parent-attitude scores and their education levels (p<0,01). Such that fathers
who have a secondary education degree have higher scores compared to the ones who have
high school or university degree. Other variables such as age groups of fathers, their
occupation status, gender of their children and family structure were found statistically
insignificant in explaining the attitudes of fathers (p>0,05). When the analysis has been
carried out for sub-dimensions, it has been observed a significant relationship between the
over-protectiveness attitude of fathers and their occupation status (p<0,01). The fathers who
are “workers” have significantly higher over-protectiveness attitudes than the ones who are
“public employees”. In general, when the attitudes of fathers and mothers are compared to
each other, there was a positive and significant relationship between them. It has been
observed that the attitudes of fathers and mothers can be used to predict the behavioral status
of each other. Discussion and Conclusion: It has been shown that the attitudes of fathers and
mothers have both direct and indirect effects on the development of children. Therefore, there
are various studies performed on the relationship between the father-mother attitudes and
child development. In this study, we questioned whether some of the variables of mothers,
fathers and children have effects on the child-rearing attitudes of families. Besides, the
association between the attitudes of the fathers and mothers in terms of child-rearing and it
has been determined that the attitudes of both fathers and mothers have significant influences
on each other. Generally, even though the child-rearing attitudes of fathers and mothers are
affected by different variables, they were also significantly influenced by each other. These
results show the importance of the studies related to the promotion of the child development.
So, participation of both mother and father in the training programs, in case one of the parents
is absent, participation of at least one of them, is crucial in achieving the targeted aim of the
training programs and in improving the child-rearing-attitudes of the parents.
Key Words: Attitude of The Mother, Attitude of The Father, Pre-School
(WOMEN'S HEALTH ABSTRACTS SAMPLE)
FUNCTIONAL STATUS OF MOTHERS AND FATHERS AFTER
CHILDBIRTH
Sevgi ÖZKAN, Sinem GORAL TÜRKCÜ, Özlem KAYHAN, Pınar SERÇEKUŞ,
Ümran SEVİL
Abstract: Introduction, purpose: The period of transition to parenthood can be a complex
period for both mothers and fathers. Functional status related to motherhood and fatherhood
after childbirth is a multidimensional process. Functional status after childbirth is defined as a
multidimensional concept that covers mother’s readiness for the responsibilities of childcare
and her restart of self-care, housework and social and occupational activities. Fathers’
functional status is defined as a concept that covers their continuing or increasing of
housework, social, childcare, occupational and educational activities after the period of their
wives’ pregnancy and birth and their assuming of the responsibility for childcare. In this
process, women and men are expected to fulfill their responsibilities related to parenthood and
to integrate their past activities into their new and expanding roles. This study was conducted
to define the changes in months of the social dimension of the functional statuses and
improvements of mothers and their husbands after childbirth. Method: The population of the
study, which was structured as descriptive, included mothers in the postnatal period and their
fathers who were registered in 51 Family Health Centers in the center of the province of
Denizli. The samples of the study was made up of mothers (and their husbands) who were
registered in 3 of these Family Health Centers selected through simple random sampling
method, who were between the 6th and 8th weeks of postnatal period, who had full-time
vaginal or cesarean delivery, whose children had no health problems, who had no mental
retardation, chronic disease or injury, who could understand and speak Turkish and who
accepted taking part in the research. The sample size was calculated to be 41 with a
confidence interval of 95% and a sampling error of 5% by using the sample size calculation
formula that is used in the cases that the population is known, however 45 mothers and 45
fathers (a total of 90 persons) were taken into the scope of the research in order to increase the
strengths of the study. The data collection tools used in the study were the Inventory of
Functional Status After Childbirth (IFSAC), the Inventory of Functional Status-Fathers (IFSI) and a questionnaire form determining the mothers’ and their husbands’ sociodemographic
and other characteristics. The data were collected in two stages. In the first stage, the
inventories of functional status and the data form determining the sociodemographic
characteristics and the characteristics of other variables were applied to mothers and fathers
that were between the 6th and 8th weeks of the postnatal period. In the second stage, the
inventories of functional status were applied again to the mothers and fathers in the 6th month
of the postnatal period. In both first and second stages, the mothers and fathers were asked to
review the routine activities they did before the pregnancy and to specify to what extent they
continue to do them. Permissions were taken from the Provincial Directorate of Health of
Denizli and from Pamukkale University’s Ethics Committee for Non-Invasive Clinical
Research for conducting the study. Oral and written consents were received from those taking
part in the study and face-to-face interview technique was used. Numbers, percentages,
averages, Paired t-test, Mann-Whitney U Test and Kruskal Wallis test were used in the data
analysis. Statistical significance was defined as p<0.05. Findings: A significant increase was
determined in the participating mothers’ average points for domestic activities (p=0.000),
social activities (p=0.000) and self-care activities (p=0.000) in the sixth month as compared to
the second month. No significant difference was found between the months in terms of
childcare activities and occupational activities (p>0.05). As for the functional statuses of
fathers in the second and sixth months, a significant increase was found in the sixth month’s
average points for domestic activities (p=0.008), social activities (p=0.003) and childcare
activities (p=0.007). No significant difference was found between the months in terms of
childcare activities, self-care activities, occupational activities and educational activities
(p>0.05). Fathers with higher education levels were determined to have higher childcare
responsibility in the second month (p<0.05) and higher childcare activities in both second and
sixth months (p< 0.05). Mothers with higher education levels were determined to have higher
average points for domestic activities in the sixth month (p<0.05). Mothers who had cesarean
delivery were found to have higher average points for domestic activities in the sixth month
(p<0.05) while there was no difference in the second month. Other sociodemographic
variables such as economic status, number of children, age, getting support for childcare and
housework, and planning the pregnancy were found to have no effect on the functional
statuses of mother and fathers (p<0.05). Conclusion: Positive changes were found in the
functional statuses of mothers and their husbands in the months after childbirth. Nurses have
important functions in the transition of mothers and fathers into their changing roles and in the
healthy development of children. Identification of the functional statuses of mothers and their
husbands after childbirth and determination of the factors affecting the functional status in our
country will enable providing care for women and their husbands through an integrated
approach and contribute to their adaptation to the period after childbirth. Therefore, nurses
should take necessary initiatives to prepare parents for the new stage of their life by
supporting them in their transition to the role of parenthood starting from the pregnancy
period.
Key Words: Inventory of Functional Status after Birth, Inventory of Functional StatusFathers, Functional Status, Period after Childbirth, Transition to Motherhood, Transition
to Fatherhood