Abstract:

The purpose of this research is to examine university students' perceptions of subjective social status according to their family belonging, gender, and psychological birth order. This research is a descriptive study based on relational screening model. The universe of the research was be the students attending 4-year faculties of Mersin University in the 2020-2021 academic year. The sample was selected using a easily accessible sampling method. 384 female and 217 male Mersin University students participated in the research. Data collected online via Google Forms. "Subjective Social Status Scale", "Family Belonging Scale" and "White-Campbell Psychological Birth Order Inventory" were be used with the personal information form as data collection tool in the research. In the analysis part of the study; Firstly, Shapiro-Wilks or Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test were be applied depending on the size of the sample while checking the normality assumptions and it was observed that the data showed normal distribution. Therefore, parametric analysis methods were used in our study. According to the findings of the research, while subjective social status scale scores differ statistically significantly according to gender and family belonging level, they do not differ according to psychological birth order and whether parents are together or not. However, it was found that the interaction effect of the variables did not cause significant differentiation. It has been observed that male university students have higher subjective perceptions of social status than females. It was determined that the subjective social status perception of university students with low level of family belonging was lower than those with medium and high level of family belonging. In addition, a positive and statistically significant relationship was found between the subjective perception of social status and the level of family belonging and the first child and the youngest child sub-dimension, and a negative relationship between the middle child and the only child sub-dimension. As a result of the research, it is recommended to organize appropriate awareness trainings and seminars about the relevant variables, to support university students by working on the relevant variables, and to examine the relationship between subjective social status and different variables in our country.

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