Parental attitudes toward children’s rights in a pediatricoutpatient clinic: Care and protection versus self-determination. A cross-sectional study

Introduction.Parental attitudes toward children's rights may shape how children participate in health care according to their age and developmental level.Evidence from pediatric outpatient settings in Türkiye is limited.Objective.To examine the relationships among the subdimensions of parental attitudes toward children's rights and identify those sharing variance with Self-Determination attitudes. Population and methods.Cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational study conducted in the pediatric outpatient clinic of a tertiary hospital, April-June 2026.Of 860 invited parents, 513 completed the questionnaire (59.7%).The Parental Attitudes Toward Children's Rights Scale was used (subdimensions: State Assurance and Support, Care and Protection, Self-Determination; Cronbach's alpha 0.811-0.867).Two-stage hierarchical regression was applied, with sociodemographic variables in Block 1 and the two remaining attitudinal subdimensions in Block 2. Because the variables entered in Block 2 and the outcome derive from the same instrument, the findings were interpreted as shared attitudinal variance rather than as independent prediction. Results.Care and Protection had the highest mean (4.45 ± 0.34), followed by State Assurance and Support (4.39 ± 0.36); Self-Determination was the lowest (3.97 ± 0.37).Block 1 contributed negligibly (R² = 0.011; p = 0.322).Block 2 substantially increased explained shared variance (R² = 0.523; ΔR² = 0.512; p < 0.001), with State Assurance and Support (β = 0.432) and Care and Protection (β = 0.332) both significant (p <0.001). Conclusions.Parents strongly endorsed protective and institutional-assurance rights, while selfdetermination scored lowest.These findings support addressing protective orientations together with the child's right to participate in pediatric care.