Childhood trauma experiences as predictors of marital adjustment and satisfaction

In this study, it was aimed to determine the relationships between childhood trauma experiences and marital adjustment/satisfaction and find out the socio-demographic variables that affect marital adjustment and satisfaction. With these purposes in mind, 1112 participants (1024 females and 88 males) were administered the "Childhood Trauma Questionnaire", "Marital Adjustment Test", and "Marital Satisfaction Scale". A "Personal Data Form" developed by the researcher was used to collect participants' personal data. In the analysis of the data, Pearson product-moment correlations, independent samples t-tests, one way ANOVAs and multiple regression analyses were utilized. As a result of the analyses, significant positive correlations were obtained between participants' general trauma levels, physical abuse levels, sexual abuse levels, emotional abuse and neglect levels and marital adjustment/satisfaction levels. Childhood trauma experiences came out to be significant predictors of marital adjustment and marital satisfaction, with the biggest effect size belonging to the emotional abuse subcomponent of childhood trauma for both dependent variables. The socio-demographic variables with statistically significant effects of marital adjustment were found to be gender, age, level of education, method of introduction before marriage, duration of marriage, number of marriages, number of children, family income level, whether or not to have got individual/couple psychological counseling, upbringing environment, and whether or not to live in the same province as the families of the husband/wife. The characteristics of the place where the couple resides in was found to not have any significant effect on marital adjustment. Finally, the socio-demographic variables that have significant effects on marital satisfaction were found to be gender, level of education, method of introduction before marriage, family income level, whether or not to have got individual/couple psychological counseling, and whether or not to live in the same province as the families of the husband/wife. The variables that did not have any significant effects of marital satisfaction were detected as age, duration of marriage, number of children, number of marriages, upbringing environment, and the characteristics of the place where the couple resides in.