Spritual motifs in mixed marriages-family of life of Turkish individuals from the persefective of cultural psychology-USA (DMV) region

The aim of this research is to examine the spiritual and cultural motifs in the lives of Turkish individuals who were born and culturally shaped by Turkish culture during their childhood and continue their life in USA by making mixed marriages in their adulthood, and to reveal the difficulties, their solutions and supports that they expect or need in the acculturation process in US. In the research, "The God Perception Scale" was used to investigate the spiritual view of Turkish individuals and their definition of the Creator, and "The Marriage Adjustment Scale" was used to understand how they define their relationship with their spouses. In the quantitative part of the study, 105 Turkish individuals who were suitable for the research subject participated in the United States. Considering the quantitative data, the marital harmony and perception of God of Turkish individuals who have settled in the United States and have mixed marriages turn out similar, according to their gender, income level, number of children, job status of themselves and their spouses, whether their parents are together or apart, according to their age and duration of marriage. Among these individuals, the fear-oriented God perception education of university graduates was higher than those of graduate education. Likewise, the fear-oriented God perception of Turkish individuals whose father's education is in primary school or less is higher than those whose father's education is higher. It has been concluded that Turkish individuals whose family approves the marriage decision have a higher love-oriented God perception than those whose marriage decision is not interfered with. It was resulted that the love-oriented God perception scores of the participants whose spouse's religion is Islam are higher than those whose spouse's religion is not Islam. It has been determined that as the marital adjustment scale scores increase, there is an increase in the perception of love-oriented God. In the qualitative part of the research, in-depth interviews were conducted with 34 Turkish individuals living in the DMV region. In these interviews, it is aimed to reveal what the spiritual-cultural motifs in the life of the Turks are and to what extent and how they can continue to maintain these motifs. The issues such as cultural expectations of spouses from each other, the advantageous and disadvantageous situations arising from cultural differences, which culture will be dominant when having a child, have been tried to be examined with the interview method in terms of Turkish individuals. As a result, it has been determined that Turkish individuals are in an effort to adapt to the new cultural environment by preserving their own cultural motifs. It is among the findings that they make a special effort to convey their own culture to their children.