Çocukların Büyük Ebeveynleri İle Etkileşimlerine İlişkin Görüşleri

Bu araştırma, büyük ebeveynleri ile birlikte yaşayan çocukların, büyük ebeveynleri ile etkileşimlerine ilişkin görüşlerini incelemek amacıile Ankara’nın Çankaya ilçesine bağlıBeşevler semtinde yaşayan, kolayda örnekleme yöntemi ile seçilen 300 ilköğretim öğrencisi üzerinde yürütülmüştür. Araştırma kapsamına alınan çocukların yarısından fazlasıkız, çoğunluğunun yaşı12 ve üzerindedir. Çocukların yaşgruplarına göre çocuk ve büyük ebeveyn etkileşimine ilişkin görüşleri incelendiğinde küçük yaşgrubundaki çocukların büyük ebeveynlere bakışaçısının daha olumlu, çocukların yaşlarıbüyüdükçe değerlendirmelerinin daha olumsuz olduğu görülmektedir. Kız çocuklarıbüyük ebeveynleri ile etkileşimlerine yönelik erkeklere göre daha olumlu, erkek çocuklar ise kızlara göre daha olumsuz görüşbildirmişlerdir. Çocukların genç büyük ebeveynler ile daha iyi iletişim kurduklarıve büyük ebeveyne yönelik görüşlerinin daha olumlu olduğu; büyük ebeveynin eğitim düzeyi artıkça çocukların olumlu görüşlerinin ve bazıolumsuz görüşlerinin ortalamalarında artışolduğu belirlenmiştir.

Grandparents/the elderly are the important members of family system Lussier et al., 2002 . Firstly the roles of parents and siblings, secondly the roles of grandparents have an effect on child’s upbringing and his/her personality development Anonymous, 2002; Şahin and İnal, 2007 . Grandparents influence their grandchildren’s lives positively with the roles such as nursing, treating with love and affection, making children play games, sermonizing, standing between parents and children and providing for the third generation with the cultural transmission Şener, 2009; Çiftçi, 2008; King et al., 2000 . The importance of the relationship between grandparent and grandchildren is increasingly recognized nowadays Smith, 1991 . While living with grandparents in the metropolis is getting harder and harder, the tradition of living as a big family still exists in a lot of cities. This tradition is generally seen in the way that with women entering the work life, grandchildren are brought to their grandparents’ houses and within the work hours of women, grandparents take the responsibility of caring children. Establishing a relationship with grandchildren provides a high spiritual satisfaction for grandparents. For grandparents, their grandchildren are more precious than their own children Hazer, 2011 . Having a grandchild is a unique situation for all the grandparents. Spending time with the grandchild, playing with him/her, loving him/her and sometimes helping his/her nursing are uplifting experiences for family elders Hazer, 2012 . A grandparent who interacts with his/her grandchild transfers his/her own culture to the third generation Çiftçi, 2008 . Grandparents can be more helpful as guides and mentors in many important times of their grandchildren’s lives than parents Harper and Levin, 2005 . Telling tales to grandchildren, taking them to the parks and entertain them, showing them around are some of the common roles of grandparents Arpacı and Ersoy, 2008 . It is known that grandparents communicate with their grandchildren in a better way and that they can figure as pacifiers, soothers, detractive of tension and conflicts between children and their parents Çiftçi, 2008 . Understanding each other of different generations which live together and their positive approaches are substantial for social cohesion and peace Canatan, 2009 . On the account that interaction between child and grandparent is significant for the maintenance and protection of social culture and values, reinforcement of intergenerational relations, upbringing and education of child/grandchild, this study is planned and conducted with the aim of analyzing children’s opinions who are living with their grandparents, about their interactions with their grandparents. The sample of this study comprised of 300 elementary students chosen by the method of convenience sampling who live in the neighborhood of Beşevler from Çankaya in Ankara. Questionary form was used as data collection tool. The demographical qualities of children and grandparents were analyzed by the usage of numbers and percentage values. Also, arithmetic mean of variable of age and average monthly income was taken. Positive and negative opinions of the children about the interaction between children and grandparents were evaluated with the answers given to the statements like likert type. The effect of the child’s age and grandparent’s age and his/her educational status on the positive and negative opinions of children about interaction between children and grandparents was analyzed by the usage of variance analysis. The effect of children’s gender on their positive and negative opinions related to the interaction between children and grandparents was analyzed by the usage of student’s t-test. In cases where the results of unilateral variance analysis were meaningful, to determine in which groups there was the difference, Scheffe Test was used. More than half of the children included in the scope of this study were girls. While the age of most children was 12 and above, almost 80% of them were studying in the 5th grade or in an upper grade. The 47.7 % of the elderly were male. The general average of age was 67.05±9.53 year. When their educational status were researched, it was determined that 26.0 % of them were illiterate, 44.0 % of them were literate or primary school graduate and 6.0 % of them were high school graduate. Average monthly income of the elderly was ¨732.68±485.752. When according to age groups, the opinions of children about the interaction between children and grandparents were examined, opinions like enjoying time with grandparents, being like friends with grandparents, sometimes loving grandparents more than parents showed meaningful difference p