The Role of Automatic Thought and Decision-Making Styles in Middle School Students’ Problem-Solving Skills

The aim of the study is to examine the role of middle school students’ automatic thoughts and decision-making styles in explaining their problem-solving skills. the study is conducted with 500 students from five different secondary schools in the district of kağıthane in istanbul during the 2018-2019 academic year. a personal information form, the problem-solving inventory for children at the level of primary education (psic), the children’s automatic thoughts, and the adolescents’ decision-making questionnaire have been applied. a t-test for independent means, the pearson correlation analysis, and multiple hierarchical regression analysis have been used. a significant negative relationship has been found for students’ problem-solving skills with the sub-dimensions of automatic thought. a significant positive relationship exists for their problem-solving skills with the sub-dimensions of self-esteem and prudent selectivity from the decision-making styles scale. a significant negative correlation has also been found among the sub-dimensions of neglect, panic, and responsibility avoidance from the decision-making styles scale. the factors of automatic thought and decision-making styles have been observed to explain 52% of the total variance in problem-solving skills. these variables have been concluded to be able to be evaluated as predictors for explaining middle school students’ problem-solving skills.