Extended abstract

Background & Purpose

A family is one of the most important institutions of society shaping individuals’ personalities. Family satisfaction and quality are among the factors influencing the flourishing, growth, and development of family members (Car, 2012, cited in Chavoshi et al., 2019). The family is a system that includes spousal, parental, and sibling subsystems. The spousal subsystem is considered the most fundamental subsystem of the family which its continuation leads to the stability of the family. Marital quality affects the spousal subsystem's efficacy, strength, and durability (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2012). Fowers & Owenz (2010) define marital quality based on spouses' feelings as the reflection of general subjective judgments and the spouses' assessment of their relationship. It is essential to conduct studies on issues in the family area, especially marital quality, while cultural contexts of the society are taken into account. The present study sought to examine the issue of marital quality in the context of Iranian society. The family and marriage should not be regarded as a macro-sociocultural phenomenon far from looking at the experience of the main actors of the family, the husband and wife, and not be considered an entirely micro and interpersonal phenomenon without considering the cultural contexts of the society. Hence, the present research attempted to conduct in-depth interviews with couples reporting a high degree of marital quality in their marital life and to investigate the approaches and strategies adopted by these couples to increase the quality of their marital life in the existing social context. Therefore, the current study addressed the two main questions:

• How did the couple (as the main actors of the family) describe the societal and cultural context of marriage and family?
• What strategies and approaches did couples adopt for or against this cultural context to improve their marital quality?

Method

The present study was qualitative, and the Straussian grounded theory method was used to analyze and interpret the collected data to understand the marital quality. In this study, 20 couples (40 males and females)  in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province were selected through purposive sampling. The sample size was chosen according to the concept of saturation or redundancy (Guba & Lincoln, 1985). The inclusion criteria for couples were as follows: (a) having the maximum satisfaction of marital life, (b) being married between 1-15 years, (c) having the age range of 25-45 years, (d) reading and signing the informed consent form, (e) not having family-marital problems (through testing marital conflicts), and (f) not using psycho-neurological drugs. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Participants were interviewed from October 2018 to June 2019, and each participant was assured of the confidentiality of the interview and observance of ethics. The average interview time was between 40 to 60 minutes. All interviews were recorded entirely and then transcribed. Data analysis was also performed according to the grounded theory based on data immersion, classification, constant comparative methods, and coding. The analysis of the data was done in accordance with the two main research questions (1) the couples’ description of the existing cultural context and conditions and (2) The strategies adopted by them in the existing cultural context.

Results

Figure 1.

The conceptual model of the study

1. “Acceptance” and “Change” strategy in the context of a culture of shame and gender-role stereotypes.

According to the interviewees, some aspects of couple's cultural backgrounds, such as living in a shame-based culture, experiencing restricted emotional intimacy between spouses, and between parents and children in most families, resulted in the lack of proper transmission of emotional skills that the partners believed were required for high marital quality. Despite these problematic areas, couples replaced emotional disillusionment with sensual-emotional satisfaction by adopting two strategies of “change” and “acceptance”.

2. Commitment and role-equilibrium strategy under in the shadow of traditional gender-role stereotypes

Couples believed that some of the underlying conditions, such as traditional gender-role stereotypes emphasizing gender segregation, could challenge the sense of satisfaction with marital life. One could not distinguish precisely a couple’s roles in a family because, according to couples, one of the influential factors in marital satisfaction was the couple's commitment to fulfilling their responsibilities without dividing them based on gender.

3. Behavioral moderation strategy under the conditions of extreme beliefs (excessive intimacy) and negligent beliefs (excessive independence) in communicating with the family of origin

According to the interviewees, the dysfunction of the educational process on the quantity and quality of relationships between couples and their families was one of the factors affecting the quality of marital life. Couples adopted some ways in order to avoid harming their relationships with others. These included being confidential and not discussing marital life issues with others, even for parents. In addition, partners tried not to interfere in the affairs of others and also tried not to let others interfere in their marital life affairs.

4. Realism strategy under the conditions of “valuing others’ judgments.”

In line with the interviewees, one of the problematic cultural foundations in Iranian society is keeping up with the joneses, comparing, and “valuing others’ judgments” in life. one of the important factors in a couple’s life was avoiding idealizing thinking and satisfying desires based on reasonable and accessible expectations.

5. “Treasuring the spouse strategy in the absence of a culture of collective thinking and in the lack of trusting in consulting with the spouse

Some of the problematic cultural contexts led to the formation of one-sided decision-making in marital life. Some of these contexts include not institutionalizing the culture of collaboration and collective thinking. According to couples, altruism should replace selfishness and self-superiority in a couples’ relationship; And the couples’ relationship should be such that one of the partners does not feel disillusioned or worthless, and the partners don't see each other as rivals whose main concern is to win over the other.

Discussion

Iranian families, specifically couples, have sought to reproduce the concepts of modernity and tradition according to their living conditions. Therefore, the practical implication of this study is paying more attention to the micro-level variables, namely the “husband and wife,” as the main actors of the family to increase “marital quality” and institutionalize and establish a marital and family program. The current research has some limitations. One is cautious in generalizing the results of any qualitative research. It is recommended to perform such studies in different generations separately and across states and cities so that the marital quality in different cultures, customs and people of other areas, as well as a common typology of marital quality can be found.  It is recommended that the research results be implemented in structural equation modeling and experimental intervention for couples so that the results can be tested quantitatively.

Ethical Considerations

At first, the general purposes of the research were explained to the participants;

The participants' consent was acquired to record the interviews;

The participants were assured that they would be given numerical codes in the report of results so that their names would keep anonymous; They were given the right to leave the interview at any time.

Funding: No funding was received for this study.

Authors’ contribution: This article is sponsored by the Office of Women and Family Affairs of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Governorate.

Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflicting interests.

Acknowledgments: Researchers appreciate participants' contributions to the research.