Abstract:

Divorce is a family crisis factor that affects all family individuals. The experiences of divorced mothers with their parents are the subject of many research in the summer of the foreign field, while the number of research on the subject in the summer of the domestic field is quite limited. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between divorced mothers’ parental stress and social support they perceive, personality characteristics and self-perceptions about the role of parents. The research data were collected from 128 mothers who have officially divorced from their spouse, have passed at least four months after the divorce, the child’s custody is in the mother and have at least one child under the age of 18. The research was approved by the Ethics Board of the Yıldırım Beyazıt University of Ankara with Decision No. 214 on 09/12/2015. The study used the demographic form of information, the personality test based on qualities, the multi-dimensional scale of social support perceived, the scale of self-perception in relation to the role of the parent, and the scale of parental stress. The results of the analysis have found that the social support that was perceived, the emotional imbalance, which is the lower dimensions of the personality scale, and the lower dimensions of the scale of experience and self-perceptions about the role of parenthood, the parent’s investment, which is the lower dimensions of the scale of parenthood stress, significantly put into effect the parent’s stress. In addition, the experience of transparency and perceptible social support addresses parental stress negatively. It has been found that emotional imbalance and parental investment put parents’ stress in a positive direction. Parental competence, role satisfaction, parental role balance, outward orientation, soft headline and responsibility variables have been found to be meaningless in suppressing parental stress.  According to the findings of this study, the most effective variable that reduces parental stress is the characteristic of experience-open personality.

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