Exploring Spouses’ Lived Experiences of Marriage to Only Children
Keywords:
lived experiences, spouses, only childrenAbstract
The present study aimed to explore spouses’ lived experiences of marriage to only children. This qualitative study employed a descriptive phenomenological design, and data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The study population consisted of all spouses of only children living in Isfahan during 2025–2026. Participants were selected through purposive sampling. Data saturation was reached after interviews with 11 spouses of only children. The data were analyzed using Colaizzi’s (1978) method. Three main themes were extracted from the lived experiences of the spouses of only children: (1) opportunities and facilitating factors associated with marriage to only children, (2) challenges and pressures associated with marriage to only children, and (3) personality and behavioral patterns of only children. The lived experiences of spouses of only children reflected a combination of distinctive challenges concerning relational boundaries, emotional opportunities, and stability orientation. The findings also indicated that widespread negative stereotypes do not necessarily represent the actual lived experiences of these spouses. Awareness of these experiences may assist young people considering this type of marriage, as well as family counselors, in managing the challenges specific to marriages involving only children.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Mohammad Mahdi Eftekhari (Author); Fatemeh Shirvani
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
