HOW CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES RELATE LIFE SATISFACTION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v0i0.360Keywords:
childhood experiences, life satisfaction, happiness, experiences scale, psychological healthAbstract
The objective of hereby study is to develop a scale with the capability of measuring childhood experiences of individuals in consideration of Turkish culture and to test whether childhood experiences predict life satisfaction of an individual. To that end, at the first stage of the study, a scale, which can measure the childhood experiences of individuals, is developed. The draft scale, which consists of 25 items, is applied on 345 undergraduates (187 female, 158 male) in academic year 2013-2014. Hereby Scale on childhood experiences consists of 2 sub-aspects (Communication Problems and Abuse of Authority), with 12 items under the former and 5 belonging to the latter. During the reliability studies on the scale, the coefficient “Cronbach’s alpha” is found to be .90. Upon the factor analysis on 17-item scale on childhood experiences, a 2-factor structure with an eigenvalue of 2.98 that explains 47% of total variance is obtained. The confirmatory factor analysis on the mentioned structure yielded the fit index values as RMSEA= .047, GFI= .91, CFI= .91, AGFI= .90, NFI= .90, NNFI= .90 and SRMR= .048, respectively. At the second stage of the study, the working group comprised a total of 323 graduate individuals, with 187 (59%) females and 135 (41%) males. At the second stage, the effects of childhood experiences of individuals on their ego, as well as the relation between ego and life satisfaction, are explored. It is concluded that the negative self-image predicts the life satisfaction of an individual at a negative rate of -.32.
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