The relationship of seperation-individuation levels, attachment styles, anxiety levels and family functionality among married couples

How the separation-individuation process is spent in childhood affects the psychological and social health of the individual in adulthood. Failure to pass the separation-individuation process successfully can lead to low self-esteem, high anxiety, communication problems and problems in bilateral relations. This situation carries the risk of adversely affecting marital life and family functionality. Functional families have an important place in the protection and development of the psychological and social health of the society. In the light of all this information, the main purpose of this thesis is to determine the relationship between separation-individuation levels, attachment styles, anxiety levels and family functionality levels of married couples. The research is a quantitative research and a relational survey model was used. The universe of the research consists of married couples. However, since it is not possible to reach the list of all married couples, snowball sampling method, which is one of the non-probability sampling methods, was used. Accordingly, 237 married individuals were reached. While collecting the research data, the socio-demographic information form and the information form introducing the couples/marriages, the Separation-Individuation Scale, the Attachment Styles Levels Scale, the State-Trait Anxiety Scale and the Family Functioning Style Scale developed by the researcher will be used. Data were collected from volunteer participants after obtaining the permission of the Ethics Committee. SPSS 24.0 program was used in the quantitative data analysis of the research. In the study, the scale scores were calculated and it was concluded that the scores showed a normal distribution. Parametric test techniques were used in the study due to the normal distribution of the scores. The t-test and ANOVA test were used to analyze the variation of the scale score according to demographic characteristics. Correlation and regression analyzes were performed to examine the relationships between the scales. It was concluded that individuals with secure attachment style have a high level of separation-individuation, as the level of separation-individuation decreases, their anxiety levels increase and the level of family functionality decreases. The results of the research were discussed with the relevant theoretical knowledge and the findings/results of other studies and suggestions were made on the subject.