Definition of Family Training and Its Importance
Family training is the training efforts that are shown to develop and strengthen the family institution- the smallest unit of the society- and contribute to the family members and family life. In other words, the family training is to provide educational and practical opportunities, with the aim of increasing the life standard of the family members and their unity, so that the family members can gain necessary knowledge and skills. Generally, the parents interiorize the way they were brought up and make an effort to raise their children in accordance with those behaviors and attitudes. However, in parallel with the socio-cultural and economic developments in the societies, the ways of raising the children differentiate. In developed societies training programs which enhance the parents’ knowledge and skills about the child-care and growing are applied. There are many longtime studies about the effect of the pre-school training practices, in which parents take part, on the parents and children. It was concluded that the level of learning, academic success, school adaptation behaviors and future employment of the children, whose parents from low socioeconomic levels participated in such programs, increased and their levels of early pregnancy and crime decreased. Considering the parents, it was found that the needs of the parents, who participated in such training programs, were met and their levels of self-reliance and skills of controlling their lives increased (Yılmaz Bolat and Özgün, 2013; Güler, 2010; Gür and Kurt, 2011; Temel, 2003; Tezel Şahin and Özyürek, 2010a; Ünlüer, 2010). In a study carried out by Ömeroğlu-Turan, Tezel Şahin, Turla and Can (1999) to examine the effects of “Mother Child Training Program” on the mothers’ skills about child development and training, and on the organization of home environment, it was found that as the mothers’ levels of knowledge increased they reflected it on their home environment. Also, in another study done by Evirgen (2002) with the aim of determining the effects of School-Supported Mother Training Programs on the mothers, the mothers, who participated in the study, reported that they developed affirmative attitudes in their communication with their children, they talked with their children more, they read stories to their children, they played together with their children, they interiorized more positive discipline methods and they perceived themselves in a more positive way. Further, in a study carried out by Elibol (2007) with the aim of determining the contribution of the training given to mothers with 12-36 months children to the mothers’ self-efficacy and to their children’s development; it was detected that the training given to the mothers influenced the mothers’ self-efficacy and their children’s development scores affirmatively. As a result of the studies conducted by Durualp, Kaytez and Kadan (2016) and Demircioğlu (2012), it was observed that the knowledge of child development and education of mothers who received parent education increased and family functions and child nurturing attitudes changed positively.
Today, the parent training is regarded as one of the important ways of gaining communicative skills required to advance the perception of child raising and intra-familial dependence. Except for types of behaviors that parents gain with the daily life experiences, the need for training programs which contribute them to carry out their “motherhood and fatherhood” tasks properly has been rising. Because of the fact that the parents meet all the needs of their children, especially during the pre-school period, they are the closest people to their children and help them to gain many basic skills. Therefore, the concept of value the children experience in their families and the personality they display in accordance with the behaviors they regard as role models have an important position in their academic life and in keeping up with the social life. The element, which provides the continuity in the school-home relation, is the parents’ participation in the training. As a result of that participation, the knowledge and skills that children gain at school are supported and strengthened, thus progression is gained in training. In this way it gets easier for the child to adapt to social life and his academic success increases (Ersay, 2013; Gür and Kurt, 2011; OBADER, 2013; Özel and Zelyurt, 2016; Ünal, 2017).