Mothers and Parents’ Marital Relations: Influential Agents in Father-Child Relations

Abstract

This study examines how parents’ marital relations and the explicit and implicit messages conveyed by mothers to their children about their fathers affect father-child relationships. A homogeneous sampling method was used to select as the participants nine women and seven men, aged 18-20 (x = 18.88), all of whom were students in the Departments of Turkish Language (N=6), Mathematics (N=5), and Psychological Counseling at Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey. The data were collected using the semi-structured, in-depth interviewing technique and were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenology Analysis. This study identified three overarching themes as part of the analysis: (i) children’s varying interpersonal boundary relationships with their parents, (ii) relationship issues in the parents’ marriage which affect the father-child relationship, and (iii) inconsistency in the messages conveyed by mothers regarding the fathers. The findings are explained within the contexts of Turkish culture, family therapies, and the extent literature on fatherhood.