Abstract
IX I. ABSTRACT In the present study the effect of the demographic variables of clinical status, socio-economic status, mother's working status and family size on the variables of spontaneous agreement, choice fulfillment, decision time, participation and comprehensiveness of decision was investigated. The aim was to investigate differences in decision making behavior among Turkish families. The hypotheses were that clinical status, socio-economic status, mother's working status and family size had an effect on the decision making processes of families. The analyses of the findings yielded the following: Socio-economic status had an effect on choice fulfillment, decision time, participation and comprehensiveness of decision. The choice fulfillment scores of high socio-economic status families were significantly higher than the scores of low socio-economic status families. High socio-economic status families had longer decision times than low socio-economic status families. Participation scores of high socio economic status families were higher than the scores of low socio economic status families. High socio-economic status families had higher scores on comprehensiveness of decision than low socio-economic status families. There was a trend towards significance, such that the comprehensiveness of decision scores of families with not-working mothers was higher than the scores of families with working mothers.Spontaneous agreement scores were not affected by any of the four demographic variables. Clinical status, mother's working status and family size had no effect on choice fulfillment scores. Decision time was not affected by clinical status, mother's working status and family size. Participation scores were not affected by clinical status, mother's working status and family size. There was no significant difference between clinical and nonclinical families with regard to comprehensiveness of decision. The results further showed that family size did not affect the comprehensiveness of decision. These results were discussed in terms of their implications regarding decision making and family interaction in Turkish culture.
