Abstract:

For the past two centuries, world classics have been the most popular fairy tales that children from all over the world have read and listened to. Furthermore, children often identify with the heroes in those tales. This qualitative study was conducted to examine whether behavior considered to be child abuse (physical, sexual, emotional) and neglect were included in 15 classic fairy tales that were borrowed most frequently in the "preschool period" category from İskender Pala Province Public Library in Uşak in 2021. In the study, the fairy tales were examined by document analysis; and descriptive analysis was employed in the analysis of the data. The results revealed that emotional abuse (n=60) was the most common form of abuse in fairy tales, followed by physical abuse (n=19), while emotional and physical neglect (n=5) made the least frequent appearance. There were no findings regarding sexual abuse in the fairy tales. Although some of the fairy tales covered in the study were approved or reinterpreted by psychological counselors, it is recommended that the fairy tales be reviewed and reorganized in a way that does not harm children's emotional development, and that the expressions of abuse and neglect be removed.

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