Abstract:

This study was conducted to examine the relationship between childhood traumatic experiences, relationship satisfaction, and marriage expectations of individuals having romantic relationships. The sample of the study consists of 268 individuals residing in Gaziantep and having romantic relationships. The “Childhood Trauma Experience Questionnaire-Short Form (CTEQ-SF)”, “Relationship Satisfaction Scale (RSS)”, “Marriage Expectation Scale (MES)”, and “Personal Information Form” were used as data collection tools. Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient, Mann Whitney U Test, and Kruskal Wallis Test were used in the analysis of the data. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that the participants experienced emotional neglect at the highest level and sexual abuse at the lowest level among their childhood traumatic experiences. When the childhood traumas were analyzed in terms of gender, it was found that women were exposed to more physical, and emotional neglect and physical abuse than men. It was found that participants whose parents were married and together during their childhoods were exposed to less traumatization than participants whose parents were separated, divorced, or deceased, and participants who perceived their parental attitudes as irrelevant had more traumatic experiences than participants who were democratic, authoritarian, and protective. When the relationship between marriage expectations and childhood traumatic experiences is examined, it is seen that only sexual abuse has a negative but low-level relationship with marriage expectations. It has been determined that while relationship satisfaction has a moderately significant and negative relationship with emotional abuse, which is one of the childhood traumatic experiences, it has a lowly significant and negative relationship with physical neglect. The relationship between marriage expectation and relationship satisfaction is positively significant but at a low level.

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