Improving Parental Attitudes of Turkish Immigrants Living in Germany: An Action Research

Abstract

This study, which aims to improve the parental attitudes of Turkish immigrants living in Germany, is designed as an action research. During the study, the managers of the Turkish School-Parents Unions and 37 teachers giving courses to Turkish students living in Germany were interviewed, and the needs of immigrant Turkish parents for child rearing were determined. In line with these needs, a family education program was revised. The program was applied to 602 parents in 34 different group studies. Research data were collected through the letters of the participants of an eight-session program and from a group of 26 people via a focus group interview held 2 years later than the training. Data were analyzed through content analysis and descriptive analysis. According to data obtained after the completion of the family education program, the parents stated that they acquired valuable information on dealing with negative behaviors of their children, on becoming prepared for conflict resolution, anger control, and on getting effective behavior in planning their children's future. During the monitoring phase of the study, the participants stated that they continued to display their acquired behavior in terms of autonomy, communication skills, interpersonal parental communication and of democratic parental attitudes.