Examining University Students’ Self-Compassion and Compassionate Love Levels in Terms of Perceived Parental Attitudes

Halime Eker,Mehmet Kaya

doi:10.11114/jets.v6i11.3407

Halime Eker, Mehmet Kaya

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.11114/jets.v6i11.3407

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Abstract

The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between parental attitudes perceived by the students, self-compassion and compassionate love levels, and differences occur in parental attitudes, self-compassion and compassionate love levels according to various variables. The research was conducted with 326 university students studying in different departments of Sakarya University Faculty of Education. Parental Attitude Scale (PAS), Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), the Compassionate Love Scale (CLS) and Information Collection Form were applied in the study. The research data were analyzed by correlation, T-test and One Way (ANOVA). The results of the research revealed that the self-compassion level of the students who perceived the parents' attitudes as democratic was high, whereas the self-compassion level of the students who perceived the parental attitudes as authoritarian and protective-demanding was low. It was also found out that the students who perceived their parents' attitudes as authoritarian and protective-demanding had high compassionate love levels. The present study demonstrated the authoritarian and protective-demanding parental attitudes perceived by university students differed according to sex, the democratic parental attitude differed in terms of the number of siblings, and the compassionate love differed in terms of gender. It was revealed that there was a negative relationship between self-compassion and compassionate love.

Highlights

The family is considered as the most important environment and institution in terms of the psychological development of the child (Hess and Holloways, 1984)
The relationship between parental attitudes perceived by students, self-compassion levels, compassionate love levels, and differences emerge in parental attitudes and levels of self-compassion and compassionate love according to various variables were examined
The findings of this study indicates that there is a significant relationship between self-compassion and democratic parental attitude

Summary

Introduction

The family is considered as the most important environment and institution in terms of the psychological development of the child (Hess and Holloways, 1984). There is an interaction between parents and children in the family. For this reason, in the first years of life when children's specific attitudes and behaviours are beginning to emerge, the family has an important shaping effect on children (Dönmezer, 1999). In the first years of life when children's specific attitudes and behaviours are beginning to emerge, the family has an important shaping effect on children (Dönmezer, 1999) Such that, the parental attitudes promote formation and characterization of the child's personality (Yavuzer, 1996). There are as many child-rearing styles as the number of parents, and resulted from this fact, it is possible to see each of the parents (mother-father) can exhibit different types of child rearing styles towards their children (Şendil, 2003). Common parental attitudes can be summarized as; democratic, authoritarian, overprotective, over-tolerant, permissive, careless-indifferent, perfectionist, refutative and unstable-inconsistent attitude

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