Various sources of received marital messages and attitudes toward marriage of university students

The aim of this study to examine the messages university students receive from various sources and university students' attitudes towards marriage. For this, a scale to measure the messages students received from various sources was developed. A mixed method was used in the study. Participants of the study are students at university in Ankara. In the qualitative part of the study, two focus group and eight individual interviews were conducted. Records were transcribed, analyzed qualitatively; themes were formed. Marriage messages are received from four sources, namely, family, friends, social media, and other institutions. The Marriage Messages Scale was prepared. In the quantitative part of the study, 1013 unmarried university students participated. In order to collect data, Inonu Marriage Attitude Scale, Marriage Messages Scale, and Personal Information Form were used. Independent samplings t test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were utilized in the analysis of data. In the study, it was seen that university students who have high-level positive score from the totality of the sources such as family, friends, social media, other institutions sources have a more positive attitude towards marriage. Although there are differences among sources according to what this study examines, namely, gender, the way one's parents perceive marriage, the there is difference that is statistically meaningful in marriage messages. Moreover, it was found that there is no statistically significant difference in marriage messages according to being in romantic relationship, and the way one's parents got married. Findings of the study were discussed, suggestions were made.