“The dearest but the most infuriating” How to raise a child with challenging temperament?

Abstract

In this research, parents’ perceptions of difficult children and their characteristics were studied. A unique point of view to the theme was discovered through the Internet as parenting a challenging child appeared as a theme that is discussed widely in the Internet forums. In these forums, parents write about their experiences voluntarily and at the same time, they are the ones who define their children as challenging or difficult. In this study, parents’ descriptions were compared with previous definitions and studies on child temperament. This research was a qualitative research where the interest was in parents’ perceptions of difficult children. The data consisted of 118 messages written by 70 different pseudonyms. The messages were analysed through qualitative content analysis. The purpose of the research was to provide further information and tools for parents of children with challenging temperament.