DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGES AS CHILDREN MATURE: PARENTING ATTITUDES IN THE MODERN AGE

Abstract

Parental attitudes have been the focus of attention of researchers for many years. Developed parent attitudes were classifi ed typologically: authoritarian, democratic, permissive and negligent. It seems important that parents’ attitudes change in parallel with the age and development of their children. Current studies and theories on understanding this show broad consistency in this direction. This study discusses the effect of dynamic parenting attitude depending on the developmental stages of children. Considering that the effects of the developmental period in psychology have increased signifi cantly in recent years, the refl ection of this on the parenting attitude makes this study unique. While doing this, current parental attitudes, evaluation of scientifi c studies and developmental stages were thoroughly investigated by thematic synthesis method. Apart from the static understanding, the model that emerged as a result of the study is dynamically and developmentally meaningful and three main parenting attitudes have been developed; counseling, friendship and egalitarian. In this sense, the counseling attitude is accepted as informing, telling advice, recommendation and presentation. Friendly attitude also includes more togetherness, conversation, sharing and support. Libertarian attitude, on the other hand, seems critical to feel as an individual, to avoid intervention, to get support, to consult their ideas and to ask for help that will require them to take responsibility. The psychological, affective, social and individual effects of sub-indicators of these attitudes have been discussed and have brought a new perspective to the literature. The dynamic parenting attitude that is developed and revealed makes it important for educators to show a more meaningful approach to the development of the individual. However, since it is a qualitative study with this new attitude, it would be valuable to study these attitudes with different research methods such as quantitative or a more detailed qualitative study (e.g., observation, experimental and interview).