Psychological well-being, romantic attachment and attitudes toward divorce of emerging adults in Northern Cyprus

Abstract

The aim of this research was to investigate the extent to which the family structure might be related to psychological well-being, romantic attachment styles and attitudes toward divorce in emerging adulthood in Northern Cyprus. The project consisted of two studies. Study 1 compared psychological well-being and romantic attachment styles among offspring of divorced and married parents in a quantitative methodology. It also examined the extent to which this difference might be mediated by their coping with stress in relation to the quality of family relationships. In study 1, 145 offspring with divorced parents and 150 offspring with married parents who were all Turkish Cypriots were included in the sample. The age range was 18-29 years with a mean age of 22.42 years and 22.32 years for emerging adults with married parents and divorced parents, respectively. Participants were given a set of questionnaires to measure psychological well-being, romantic attachment styles, quality of family relationships and coping with stress. Study 2 was based on mixed methodology using both quantitative and quantitative approaches. For the quantitative part of the study, same participants in Study 1 were included in the sample and were given a questionnaire to measure attitudes toward divorce at the same time of the administration of the set of the questionnaires in Study 1. For the qualitative part of Study 2, 10 emerging adults with divorced parents and 10 married parents were selected from the sample of Study 1. Participants were interviewed to obtain in-depth information about their attitudes toward divorce, the quality of family relationships and coping with stress by using Thematic Analysis. Results indicated that psychological well-being, romantic attachment styles and attitudes toward divorce were predicted by inter-parental conflict and emotional support by the grandparents which in turn led to better coping with inter-parental conflict. Major themes in the interviews were “divorce as an escape” and “divorce as the turning point in family relationships”. The results also suggested that the family system within Turkish Cypriot society could be protective toward the risk of inter-parental conflict and parental divorce for offspring.

Date of Award	21 Mar 2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Roehampton
Supervisor	Cecilia Essau (Supervisor) & Catherine Gilvarry (Supervisor)