The role of gender and non-rational beliefs in romantic relationships in university students' attitudes towards marriage

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between marriage attitudes, gender roles attitudes and irrational beliefs in romantic relationships among university students studying at Mehmet Akif Ersoy University in Burdur and whether statistically significant differentiation according to the total scores of the participants from the marriage attitude scale in terms of some variables or not. Relational survey model was used in the study and the study group consisted of 654 students studying at Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University in 2018-2019 academic year. Data were collected by using 'İnönü Marriage Attitude Scale(IMAS)', 'Gender Roles Attitude Scale(GRAS)', 'Non-Rational Beliefs in Romantic Relationships Scale(NRBRRS)' and 'Personal Information Form' prepared by the researcher. It is computed that Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of IETO was .94, Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of .93 and Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of NRBRRS were .85. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, Multiple Hierarchical Regression Analysis, t-Test for Independent Samples and One-Way ANOVA were used to analyse the data. Significance level was accepted as .05. According to the findings of the study, a significant negative relationship was found between the total score of marital attitude and the total score of gender roles attitude. A positive significant relationship was found between the total score of marital attitude and the total score of irrational beliefs in romantic. A significant negative correlation was found between the total score of gender role attitude and the total score of irrational beliefs in romantic relationships. In short, as the total scores of attitudes towards marriage increased, the total scores of attitudes toward gender roles decreased; total scores of irrational beliefs in romantic relationships increase. According to another finding of the study, attitudes towards gender roles and irrational beliefs in romantic relationships significantly predicted the attitudes related to marriage. Of these two variables, it is seen that irrational beliefs in romantic relationships is the most predicting variable to attitudes towards marriage. It is seen that these two variables included in the study explained %11.2 of the attitudes towards marriage. In addition to these findings, differentiation status of marital attitudes according to gender, age, place of life, romantic relationship and family unity variables were examined. No significant difference was found in the attitudes of the participants about marriage in terms of age levels however, it was seen that males had more positive attitudes towards marriage than females, the attitudes of the people living in rural areas towards marriage were more positive than those living in urban areas, the attitudes of those who have a relationship with marriage are more positive than those who do not and , attitudes of the people whose parents were together were more positive than the divorced ones. Key Words: Attitudes towards Gender Roles, Irrational Beliefs in Romantic Relationships, Marriage Attitude