Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether spousal support, highly correlated with marital satisfaction, is affected by the number of kids and other factors as they are the most important issues in a marriage. Findings are expected to benefit spouses for family planning regarding the number of children. In today’s society, marital satisfaction and spousal support are accepted the most important issues. Marital satisfaction is basically defined as the satisfaction that the couples get from marriage on a personal and environmental basis. Spousal support is accepted as the support they provide to each other. Recent studies showed that a positive correlation exists between spousal support and marital satisfaction. However, there are a few types of research on issues regarding their foundations. The study group consisted of 201 married in Kayseri province in Turkey. The Marriage Satisfaction Scale (MSS), the Spouse Support Scale (SSS) and a Demographic Form were utilized for data collection. Data analysis was conducted with statistical analysis including average scores, standard deviations, and Pearson correlation. The findings showed that a negative medium correlation existed for the participants with no kids and with four children compared to marital satisfaction and marital support levels. In addition, the higher the number of children, the higher the negative correlation between marital satisfaction and support was found. In conclusion, the number of children and other factors significantly affects spousal support and marital satisfaction.

Keywords: