Content analysis of elementary school children's letters to a television program: |Uykudan Önce

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore children's letters to a television program "Uykudan Once". The kinds of needs, press, conception af the environment and anxieties of children from grades one to five were searched by content analysis of their letters. The variations according to sex, age or grade in school and location (urban or rural) were examined. The data consisted of 660 letters, 439 from girls and 221 from boys. Revised short form of Bellak TAT. and CAT scoring system was used as a general framework of the content analysis. Murray's need and press list was used in evaluating main needs and press perceived by the child. Overall 24 needs appeared in the letters. The results showed that need affiliation was the most frequently mentioned need. It was found that rural females expressed this need significantly more than urban females. The interrelations of needs were also examined. The mean of needs expressed per letter was 3.63. The urban subjects displayed the need affiliation-need exposition pair significantly more than rural subjects. The same trend was also observed in the need exposition-need exhibition and the need affiliation-need exposition-need exhibition interrelations. The appearance of need affiliation was significantly lower in letter were need exhibition and/or need play were present. The interrelation was more pronounced in males and in urban subjects. On the other hand, the expression of need affiliation together with need exhibition and/or need play was significantly more associated with females and with rural subjects. The press perceived by the child were mostly related to the program host A.Nalit, the most frequent ones being "nurturanceindulgence" and "dominance nurturance-parental egoidealism", respectively. Male subjects exhibited the former press significantly more than females whereas females expressed latter significantly more than males. The child also perceived press from parents, peers and siblings in their respective order of appearance. The most commonly observed press in each of these categories were "family support"; "affiliation friendship", "aggression quarrelsome peers"; "aggression quarrelsome siblings", respectively. "Family support" was apparent significantly more in urban subjects, especially in urban males. Both press "affiliation, friendship" and aggression quarrelsome peers" showed an increasing and then decreasing trend by grade the peak being at the third grade level. "Aggression quarrelsome siblings" was perceived significantly more by females than males while the subjects location had no effect. The conception of the environment was not present in most of the letters. The subjects revealed deprivation as their primary anxiety regardless of their sex, grade or location.