Analysing Liking of Children and Parenting Attitudes of Nurses Working in Pediatric and Adult Clinics

Abstract

Aim: An individual's attitude toward parenting and liking of children reflects that individual's fundamental belief about children and being with children. In pediatric care, especially pediatric nurses need to understand the differences in children's physical, emotional, and social development, and they should provide children with the love, affection and attention they need. Under the current circumstances in our country, not all nurses may find a chance to work in their field of choice. For this reason, the liking of children in nurses and the parenting style they were raised with are of particular importance. This study was designed to determine and evaluate the parenting attitudes and liking of children in nurses working in pediatric and adult clinics. Materials and Methods: The current study using a descriptive research design included 160 nurses working at Samsun Ondokuz Mayis University, who agreed to participate in the study. The research data were collected using "Personal Information Form", "Liking of Children Scale" and "Family Life and Child Rearing Attitude Scale ( Parental Attitude Research Instrument-PARI)". Results: Of the nurses participating in the study, 62.5% were in the age range of 22-30, 59.4% were married and 65.6% had a bachelor's degree. While 71.9% of the nurses reported choosing this profession through their own decisions, 79.4% reported that they were raised with democratic style of parenting. The research revealed that the liking of children and parenting attitudes were not affected by the fields nurses work in (p>0.05). Conclusion: We found no statistically significant correlation between the scores for liking of children and parenting attitudes and the sociodemographic characteristics of nurses and style of parenting they were raised with.