Meeting the basic psychological needs of agents with diverse and non-divorced family, investigation of the problem solving skills in cooperation and romantic relationships

This study aims to investigate and compare the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, problem-solving skills in romantic relationships, and coping skills among adolescents aged 14-18, considering whether their parents are divorced or undivorced. The sample comprises 288 adolescents from divorced families and 351 adolescents from intact families, residing in four different cities. The research employs a causal comparison method within the quantitative research model. Data were collected using the following tools: a Personal Information Form developed by the researcher, the Basic Needs Scale developed by İkinci (2003), the Coping Scale for Adolescents developed by Spirito, Stark, and Williams (1988) and translated in 2014, and the Problem-Solving Scale for Adolescents in Romantic Relationships developed by Kalkan (2008). IBM SPSS 22.0 package program was utilized for data analysis. The data collected in this study were found to deviate from normal distribution (kurtosis and skewness values not within +1.96 and -1.96), hence MannWhitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used for unrelated samples to assess differences between groups. Findings revealed significant differences between adolescents from divorced and undivorced families regarding the level of meeting basic needs, particularly the need for power and the need for entertainment. Additionally, significant differences were observed in general coping skills, avoidant coping skills, active coping skills, and negative coping skills. Moreover, sub-dimensions of problem-solving skills in romantic relationships, namely emotional abuse and physical abuse levels, exhibited significant differences. The study further conducted analyses based on various variables, including the adolescents' meeting of basic needs, coping skills, and problem-solving skills in romantic relationships, as well as their gender, mother's and father's educational status, the status living with whom after the divorce, psychological help seeking, age at the time of divorce, reasons for divorce, meeting with the non-custodial parent, and source of information about the divorce. Significant differences were detected among these variables.