Müge SEVAL, Tülay KUZLU AYYILDIZ, Emine ŞAHİN, Dilek YILDIRIM TANK, Zeynep İŞLER
Mediterranean Nursing and Midwifery - 2026;6(2):91-98
Objectives: When children realize that their parents are anxious, they are negatively affected by this situation. It is known that when parental anxiety decreases, children adapt better to surgical procedures and their anxiety decreases. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between anxiety levels in parents and children in the preoperative period, factors causing anxiety, and child and parent anxiety. Methods: The research was conducted between January and June 2021 at a university hospital in the Western Black Sea Region of Turkey. The population of the study consisted of 156 children who applied to the pediatric surgery clinic. The sample included 120 children who met the inclusion criteria for the study. The research data were collected over a 6-month period, and all cases that applied to the surgery clinic and met the sample selection criteria were included in the study. Results: It was determined that the education and employment status of the mother; the gender of the child, the reason for the surgery, previous surgery, and the impact of the child's operation on family life affected parents' anxiety. It was determined that the child's age, the reason for the surgery, previous surgery, and the impact of the child's operation on family life affected children's anxiety (P < .05). Conclusion: There is a moderate positive relationship between the anxiety of the parent and the child before the surgical intervention. It was determined that as the parent's anxiety increased, the child's anxiety also increased.
