The ability to solve problems is a prerequisite for human survival. Moreover, many situations we encounter in our daily lives are essentially problem solving situations. Any goal oriented behavior (conscious or unconscious) is named problem solving. The other part of human life that has become part of our daily vocabulary is stress. Stress is the process of adjusting to or dealing with circumstances that disrupt or threaten to distrupt a person's physical or psychological functioning. Stress involves a relationship between people and their environments. Parents face a variety of stressors. Parents play an important role in the development of children. In the context of the family, the child acquires not only many of the social cognitive skills, but also a behavioral pattern that may be important for a successful adaptation to the world. Parenting style is also likely to be associated with problem solving skill and coping mechanism with stress. Problem solving strategies and coping mechanism are learned through observation, reinforcement and personal experiences in various situations. Parents may provide a critical input and they may also serve as models for the children. In addition, the child's cognitive processes, that is, the scripts may be directly learned from the parents. Parents who are angry, exhausted or demoralized may simply be less emotionally available or attuned to their children and experience more tension in their interactions with their children.

The purpose of this study is to investigate relationship between problem solving skills, coping with stress and child rearing attitudes of parents. The sample of the study composed of 167 parents in Istanbul. “Problem Solving Inventory”, “Rosenbaum's Learned Resourcefulness Schedule”, “Family Life and Child Rearing Attitudes Scale (PARI)” and “Personal Information Form” were used for data collection. In order to analyze the data Pearson Moment Coefficient Correlation Techniques and ANOVA were used.

The result of the study indicated that there were positive correlation between Problem Solving Inventory and Rosenbaum's Learned Resourcefulness Schedule scores and Democratic Act Subscale of PARI. On the other hand there were negative relation between four subscales (overprotective motherhood, pressure and discipline, refusing to be housewife, spouse imcompatibility) of PARI and Rosenbaum's Learned Resourcefulness Schedule and Problem Solving Inventory scores