Child participation in the family :|a phenomenological study of fifth-grade girls’ awareness and experiences

Abstract

This study attempts to investigate fifth grade girl students’ perceptions, awareness and experiences of their participation rights in family. The study has been conducted among ten girl students and their mothers in a religious middle school, in İstanbul, Turkey. To reach the aim, phenomenological research which is a qualitative method has been used. Phenomenological research tries to describe events or phenomena through the eyes of the social actors. With this purpose, data have been collected through individual interviews, focus group meetings and personal diaries. They have been analyzed thematically, and findings have been presented under six main themes, namely participants’ family introduction, conceptual perceptions, focus group meetings’ outputs, analyzing children’s experiences through actor’s model, comparing children’s and mothers’ perceptions, comparing mothers’ perspectives to one another. Families have mostly reflected transitional family patterns in which children receive special care and attention from their parents through education, guidance, negotiation and warm family atmosphere. Yet, there has still been lack of children’s autonomy in decision making process concerning their lives and hierarchy among family members.