New places, same old faces: The effect of family contact intensity on psychological outcomes of residential mobility within Turkey

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the psychological outcomes of within-country residential mobility in Turkey. While characterized as a collectivist and tight culture, Turkey has also historically experienced extensive migration. In this study, we examine the implications of residential mobility for collectivist self-construal and violation of traditional norms at the individual level. We also test whether these relationships are contingent upon the intensity of contact with family networks. We use nationally representative data from 42,043 respondents from 19,428 households. Empirical analyses reveal that residential mobility is negatively associated with the primacy of a collective self as reflected in lower preference for homogamy and less collectivist conceptualizations of parenthood. We also find that residential mobility is positively related to tolerance of violating patriarchal norms regarding gender roles and traditional norms regarding marriage. Finally, we find that the intensity of contact with family members attenuates the effects of residential mobility on our dependent variables. We discuss the implications of our findings for research regarding residential mobility in Turkey.

Keywords

• Residential mobility
• Social networks
• Self-construal
• Norm violation
• Turkey
• Internal migration