Analysis on the childhood traumatic experiences of the individuals in a romantic relationship and the connection between the relationship satisfaction and marital expectations

This study hereby is aimed to analyze the childhood traumatic experiences of the individuals included in a romantic relationship as well as the interaction between the relationship satisfaction and the expectations out of a marriage. The participants are composed of 268 individuals included in a romantic relationship and residing in Gaziantep Province. The data has been collected through "The Short Form Scale Regarding Traumatic Experiences in the Childhood Period", "The Scale of Relationship Satisfaction", "The Scale of Marital Expectations" and the "Individual Information Form" developed by the researcher. Within the scope of the research, Spearmen's rank correlation coefficient, Mann Whitney U Test and Kruskal Wallis Test have been used in the analysis of the collected data. The result of the conducted research has proved that there is a low correlation in a negative meaningful direction between a sexual abuse subscale layered under childhood traumatic experiences of the individual included in a romantic relationship and the expectations out of the marriage. Another outcome of the research has indicated that there is a moderate correlation in a negative meaningful direction between an emotional abuse subscale layered under childhood traumatic experiences of the adult included in a romantic relationship and the relationship satisfaction. In conclusion of the applied analysis, it has been observed that the women participants have experienced more physical and emotional negligence as well as more physical abuse in their childhood period than men. Furthermore, it has been noted that the participants who are at the engagement phase of their relationship have higher expectations out of a marriage than the ones already in an ongoing marriage. Keywords: Childhood traumatic experiences, relationship satisfaction, marital expectations, romantic relationship