Questions/Difficult Questions of Preschool Children with Different Socio-Economic Conditions to Parents and Parents’ Answers to Difficult Questions

Abstract

The present is a qualitative study which aims to examine the difficult questions of preschoolers’ children with different socioeconomic conditions to their parents and the answers of the parents. 60 parents with different socioeconomic conditions whose children continue to preschool education in a province located in the central part of Turkey participated in the study. An interview form consisting of structured interview questions was used to in data collection. The data were analyzed with the content analysis technique. The results of the study showed that the children asked their parents difficult questions about daily life, religion, science/nature and sexuality/birth. The frequencies of children's difficult questions by themes showed difference according to socioeconomic conditions. Parents answered to the children's difficult questions with explanations or leaving the questions unanswered. Parents who did not answer the children's difficult questions used the strategies of passing off, saying that they will look into it, saying that they do not know and offering to look into it together. The frequencies of the strategies used by the parents when they did not answer the children's difficult questions differed based on socioeconomic conditions.