“He Was Trying to Fit Me into a Mold”: Young Women’s Post-Separation Reflections on Experiences of Control and Resistance in Dating and Intimate Relationships

Control is a form of emotional abuse characterized by a pattern of possessiveness, surveillance, and isolation that constrains young women’s autonomy and subjectivity. Increasingly recognized as a distinct and harmful dynamic, control often precedes physical and sexual violence and undermines women’s mental health and well-being. The current feminist qualitative study explored this dynamic in Türkiye and examined how young women experience and resist control in dating and intimate relationships with men through their post-separation reflections. Individual retrospective interviews were conducted with 10 women, aged 20–26, and analyzed using thematic analysis. The first theme captured a relational process of silencing in which participants gradually lost access to their individual voices. A second theme described participants’ efforts to cope with control, ranging from accommodation in early phases to seeking help and asserting boundaries in later stages of their relationships. A third theme narrated a post-separation process of growth, meaning-making, and reclaiming voice. By demonstrating how control and resistance evolve step by step, the current study offers an empowerment framework for clinical and preventive practices. Implications highlight the importance of recognizing subtle forms of control and power imbalance, acknowledging young women’s strengths, and supporting their autonomy as they navigate intimacy and gender relations.