Determining the Primary School Children’s Perceptions About the Material Values

This study was conducted to identify primary school children's perceptions about the material values. the study population of this descriptive study, conducted between march -may 2014, consisted of 8-11 age group children admitted to a pediatric clinic in the province of erzurum, turkey. no sampling was performed in the study; and, the study was carried out with 152 literate children agreed to participate in the study that have no mental retardation or neurological disorders. data were collected by using the personal information form created by the researchers and the material values scale for children. approval of the ethics committee of ataturk university, faculty health sciences, and verbal and written consents from children, their parents and related institution were obtained to conduct the study. descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, one-way anova, mann whitney u test and kruskal wallis test were used in the data interpretations. the mean age of children participated in the study was 10.15±1.03, 53.9% was male, and 44.1% was in the 5th grade. in the study, the mean material value score of children of parents with higher socioeconomic and educational status were found to be lower, and the difference between the groups was statistically significant (p<0.05). in our study, children of parents with lower socioeconomic and educational status were found to have higher perceptions about the material values. in order to prevent possible problems that can emerge in those children, the matters on material values should be discussed more in their education; parents should be informed by mass media, and public awareness should be raised in this regard