Stories of us: A qualitative study of sex differences in the relationship narratives of recently married women and men

摘要

This dissertation employed a qualitative grounded theory methodology in order to explore how a sample of recently married women and men constructed narratives about the creation of their relationships and the transition to marriage. The 42 participants in the study (21 heterosexual couples) shared the following characteristics: first marriage, no children, and married between one month and three years. Each participant engaged in a narrative interview about the relationship story, which included episodes like the high point, low point, turning point, and a future relationship scene. Participants also described their experiences of the transition to marriage.;Analysis of the data explored similarities and differences in the stories of the women and men. The data suggested a generic five act "marriage script" which accurately and adequately provides structure for the telling of the stories of these participants. The five acts of the marriage script are: Act I---The Meeting: Stories of Easy Connection, Act II---The Build-up: Who We Are and Who We Are Not, Act III---The Wedding: The Princess and the Witness, Act IV---The Marriage: Responsibility and the Fall from Grace, Act V---The Future: A Return to Mutuality? This marriage script revealed narrative similarities between the sexes in the early acts of the script (meeting and building a relationship), and narrative differences between the sexes in the acts which addressed the wedding day and the early days and months of married life.;The findings indicated that cultural messages about gender role expectations and the idealization of early marriage were prominently woven into the marriage script. Also significant is that both male and female participants described active engagement in couple identity building processes especially in Act II of the marriage script. Six thematic processes are explored in Act II, and the frequent appearance of these themes suggests that couple identity building is an important pre-marital "task." Implications for counseling include the potential benefit of helping pre-marital couples become more cognizant of the cultural messages which affect their relationships and the potential benefit of talking about expectations of marriage to prevent the somewhat common experience of post-marital "let down."