University students' approach to the institution of marriage and family (The application of Fırat University)

m SUMMARY Master Thesis University Students' Approach to the Institution of Marriage and Family (The Application of Firat University) Maşallah MUTLU Firat University The Institute of Social Sciences The Department of Sociology 2004, Page: X + 96 This is a field work which aims to reveal the university students' approach to the institution of marriage and family. The research group is the students of Firat University who attend the fourth class. The sampling of the research consists of 212 students who are 10 percent of the research group. The sampling which is proportional to the number of students for each faculties. The survey consists of 54 questions. The questions were prepared to find out the university students' choices and thoughts at micro level and the answers were examined and evaluated carefully. It was observed that the social environment and the family life have a great influence on the choices of the subjects of this experiment and these factors also affect choosing mates, the way of choosing mates, wedding ceremonies, settlement the family type and the number of children. In conclusion, Youth has to make a choice between the conventional Turkish family structure and the Western/modern family structure, They undergo a transition period and the university students are the founders of this period. Key Words: Youth, university students, choosing mates, marriage, family and the institution of family.