ABSTRACT

Aim:

This research was planned with the aim of determining the factors that influence the pediatry students’ level of love for children as well as the factors that make caring for them easier and thus to enlighten the educators.

Materials and Methods:

While gathering the research data; “Demographic Data Collection Form” and “Barnett Liking of Children Scale” were used. The data of the research were evaluated by using percentage calculations, standard deviation, correlation and multiple regression analysis. Significance level was accepted as 0.05.

Results:

Average age of the participating children was 22.43±1.87, 79.8% of them were female and 90.40% had a sibling. When the students were examined depending on their previous child care experience, it was seen that 61.7% had been involved in taking care of children, 95.7% were willing to play with children and 80.8% wanted to work in pediatric clinics in the future. A significant relation was detected between liking children and the number of siblings, taking care of children, playing games with children and being willing to work in pediatric clinics.

Conclusion:

The variables in the study explain only 52% of the state of liking children. In order to be able to determine other factors that influence the state of liking children, it is advisable to repeat the study with larger samples including students from different educational backgrounds/models.