Document Type : Research/Original/Regular

Author

• Somayeh Arab khorasani

Assistant prof. University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, Iran.

Abstract

Marriage is the prelude to entering the long-standing family of institution that its Candidates have different perspectives under the influence of various factors. One of them is generational movements. The fundamental changes in the way of entering, content management and leaving family indicate differences about marriage between the current generation and the previous one. The aim of this study is to find out the process of meaning formation of marriage in the "middle generation" who are on the borderline of experience of their and their parents' lasting marriage and early and multiple arrivals and departures of their children. The participants of this qualitative research based on Grounded theory method (systematic approach) are men and women residents in Tehran, with at least thirty years of experiencing marriage. The number of them until the theoretical saturation were 21 people. The results indicate the core category of the safety of tradition and two sub-categories including sacred validation and clear processor of life. Family life is clear from the perspective of this generation, in which it is only necessary for the person to be in his/her role and continue the path that has already existed. In this way, there is no need for individual's creativity or active action to present a specific individual's story but individuals fulfill their obligations to the society and the next generation by continuing the path of the past. This finding makes it possible to compare the semantic developments of family from the perspective of new generation (in further studies).

Highlights

Background & Purpose

Investigating family changes and extracting its indicators is an important field in family studies. This can be examined from different perspectives, including the study of evolved areas from a generational perspective. According to Mannheim's definition, generations are formed around a common theme and have a shared experience of the phenomena around them (Mannheim, 2010: 452). A change or different interpretation of the same subject will create a new generation, leading to a different understanding. A study of this understanding separately and comparing them in the next step can reveal the evolution of understandings in the field of family and provides an objective image of it for family researchers. Investigating family life from the perspective of different generations can reveal the trajectory of differences and similarities in the formation, maintenance, and dissolution. Based on its methodology (grounded theory), this research seeks to discover the process of family life meaning-finding from the perspective of a specific generation, which is called the middle generation in this study.

Focusing on the experience of this group is because the experience of each generation has its own characteristics in understanding family life and requires focusing and discovering its dimensions. The examined generation is the middle generation, which contains specific information on how attitudes toward the family and its issues change. They are the last people to have a stable family life with the farthest possibility of separation. According to the above introduction, the present study aims to "study the process of forming and understanding the meaning of marriage and family life from the perspective of the middle generation."

Method

The present study is a qualitative study using a grounded theory approach. With the possibility of both analyzing qualitative data and theorizing, this method offers a more comprehensive approach than other methods. Participants are all men and women in Tehran with a history of more than 30 years of marriage. The emphasis on the 30 years of marriage is because the generation in the intended meaning of this study is formed during this period. Based on the logic of purposive sampling, first, an exploratory study started with a sample of individuals, and after the emergence of new categories and concepts, it extended for various participants to cover emerging aspects. The number of participants until the theoretical saturation was 21 people (10 men and 11 women) in the age range of 58 to 74 years. Participants had multiple children in different sexes. The education level ranged from without education to a master's degree. They have experience of one to three marriages and separation, with different occupations and over 30 years of marriage.

 The data collection instrument was a semi-structured interview" The study's main question was experience and understanding of people about marriage, family life, and what provides the basis for this understanding. Following this question, the conditions and factors that led them to such an understanding were explored. The interviews were recorded (average time 45 to 60 minutes), and the memo technique (researcher's analytic notes) was used (Strauss and Corbin, 2015, 120). According to Silverman's recommendation on the agreement between the coders after the coding and extracting the semantic units by the researcher, another researcher was asked to encode the transcriptions. At this stage, the number of sub-categories was reduced, and the number of abstract categories was increased. This means that in the early stages of open coding, the number of codes and primary concepts was over 150. After reviewing and removing commonalities by other researchers, 27 general concepts were obtained and presented in the paradigm model.

Results

 The occurrence of fundamental changes in the way of entering, managing content, and leaving the family institution indicates the difference in the view of marriage and family between the present generation and the middle generation. This study aimed to understand the process of forming the meaning of marriage in the "middle generation" who are on the border of their and their parents' experience of lasting marriages and early, multiple arrivals and leaving with new reasons. The results indicate the core category of ''Safeness of tradition'' and the two sub-categories of ''Sacred credential'' and a ''clear way of life''. Given these categories and from the perspective of this generation, family life is a transparent image, in which it is only necessary for a person to be in her role position and to go through the path that already exists. In this path, there is no need for individual creativity or being an active actor in presenting a specific personal story, and individuals fulfill their obligations to society and the next generation by following their ancestors' way of life. This finding represents the establishment of middle-generation family life based on a clear pre-existing picture, making it possible to compare the semantic changes of family life from the new generation's perspective (in future studies).

Discussion and conclusion

 The findings indicate that living in the age in which the middle generation lived occurred in the light of safeness of tradition: in the security of something sacred and a clear way. In this way of life, marriage is a natural and possible thing (Azazi, 2001: 145) and does not require a decision. To demonstrate his being an adult, a person needs to enter the family and become an adult by fulfilling her duty towards the institution of religion and society. The public image of the tradition as passed down from previous generations is a roadmap that has gone through a period of trial and error and can adequately meet society's goals and needs. This strategic map, which does not leave a question unanswered and occupies individuals' minds as much as possible (Giddens & Pierson, 1998: 128), is so important that any violation or risk of distorting it is confronted by a reaction from the collective conscience. Living in the atmosphere of tradition condemns everything that seeks to disrupt the balance and removed it with neglect or punishment (Segalan, 2001: 235). A person who refuses to marry or is unable to perform family duties (marital or childbearing issues) will be rejected from this institution and will be replaced by another person (Roshani et al., 2020: 65). In this way, human beings' living space and mental breath remained less changed, and people continued to live in a pre-existing history and passed it on to the next generation as unchanged as possible. The above-mentioned image of living in tradition resulted from the importance of structure vs. actor and (Fatehi and Ikhlasi, 2012: 118; Abdi, 2014: 33). People in the context of tradition considered themselves the only agent of this situation. People In this unquestioned situation were more concerned about performing tasks correctly than thinking. They also ignored "themselves" in the circle of family affiliation in favor of preserving family identity (Abdi, 2014: 33).

Keywords

• Middle generation
• Marriage
• Meaning
• Gender
• GT

20.1001.1.23452692.1401.10.3.7.0

Main Subjects

• marriage
• Woman and family