Qualitative Study of Couple Identity Gaps in Disturbed Married Women

Introduction: Marital life is always affected by various factors, and one example can be marital conflict. The goal of the present study was to investigate the couple’s identity gaps in disturbed married women’s relationships and discover the factors that cause these identified gaps. Method: This research is a qualitative content analysis with a conventional approach. The study included all the disturbed married women of Shiraz city in 2022. The purposeful sampling method was used to collect the sample in this research. The data for the research was collected through semi-structural interviews. Theoretical saturation was achieved with 16 interviewees and the data were collected and analyzed. Results: The interviews underwent analysis and coding, resulting in the identification of 173 concepts, 32 subcategories, and eight main categories. These eight main categories encompass Communication breakdown, lack of empathic understanding, individualism, lack of acceptance, lack of mutual investment in the relationship, feeling insecure, comprehensive dissatisfaction, and marriage without commitment. Conclusion: It appears that the gaps in a couple’s identity can be attributed to a combination of individual factors and communication issues, which ultimately lead to confusion in their communication patterns. Consequently, it is recommended that counselors and couple therapists utilize the findings of this study when conducting premarital counseling and couple therapy at counseling centers.