Study of marriage conflicts, problem solving skills in marriage and depression levels of married women above the age 45 going through menopause

The purpose of this research was to analyze the depression levels, marital conflicts and skills solving strategies in married women who were 45 years of age or above, going through menopause. For this purpose, the relationship between depression levels, marital conflicts and the skills solving strategies of women who are going through menopause had been analyzed. Sample of this research consisted of 300 women who had been experiencing menopause with ages 45 and above, living in Istanbul. The data gathered within the scope of the research were resolved with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). During the research, Beck Depression Inventory adapted to Turkish by Tegin (1980), Marital Conflict Scale developed by Hatipoglu(1993) to measure marital conflicts, Marital Problem-Solving Scale adapted to Turkish by Hünler(2002) and Personal Information Form were used. To analyze the data, ANOVA was used and the relations between the variables were analyzed calculating Pearson's Correlation Coefficient. SPSS 20.0 statistical package program was used for analyzing the data. In accordance with the main question of the research, the relationship between the status of married women who were aged 45 and above going through menopause and their depression levels, marital conflicts and their skills solving strategies were examined. The result showed that there were no statistically significant relationship between them. When age, levels of education, employment status, manner of getting married and economical conditions were checked, it was seen that going through menopause didn't change mental health and marital relationship to a great extent and that it had no impact on those variables. The view that suggests menopause can be associated with various psychological symptoms was not supported with the results of this research. The findings obtained from this research were evaluated according to their consistency with the literature and other variables which could affect the results and some suggestions were offered.