Examining the relationship of childhood trauma with attachment styles and romantic relationships

This research was conducted to investigate the relationship between childhood traumas, attachment styles, and romantic relationships, and to examine whether these variables differ according to demographic factors. The sample of the study consists of 268 individuals aged between 18 and 60 who live in Turkey. In the study, the Socio-Demographic Information Form, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-33), and Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory-II, Scale of Experiences in Romantic Relationships were utilized. SPSS 22.0 was employed for the analysis. A t-test was employed for the independent two-group comparison, One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used for comparing unrelated more than two groups, and Bonferroni test was utilized for post-hoc analysis to determine the source of the difference. The relationship between variables was tested using Pearson correlation analysis. A significance level of 0.05 was used as the criterion for interpreting whether the obtained values are significant or not. In the findings of the research, a significant difference was observed between emotional abuse, emotional neglect, overprotection control, support, anxious attachment scores, and the gender variable, while no significant difference was found between other scale scores. Significant differences were found between emotional abuse, overprotection control, self-disclosure, physical attraction, trust, overall score of the scale for intimacy in romantic relationships, and avoidant and anxious attachment dimension scores with the marital status variable, while no significant relationship was found with other scale scores. A significant difference was observed between physical neglect, support, scores on the scale for intimacy in romantic relationships, and avoidant attachment dimension scores with the education level, while no significant difference was observed with other scale scores. Only the scores of physical neglect from the scale have shown a significant difference based on individuals' maternal education level. Childhood trauma scale general scores have been found to have a low-level negative relationship with self-disclosure, physical attraction scores; a moderate-level negative relationship with support, scores on the scale for intimacy in romantic relationships; and a low-level positive statistically significant relationship with avoidant and anxious attachment scores. There is a statistically significant moderate-level negative relationship between scores on the scale for intimacy in romantic relationships and avoidant attachment scores.