A qualitative inquiry of effective factors on marital burnout: A case study of Tehran

Document Type : Original

Authors

1 PhD Student in Psychology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human science, Saveh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Saveh, Iran

2 PhD, Retired, Counseling Department, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Kharazmi University, Karaj, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, Saveh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Saveh, Iran

doi.org/10.34785/J015.2019.007

Abstract

Today official divorce statistics do not fully indicate failure the spouses in their marital life because of the larger, but undiscovered, number of emotional divorces. One of the disadvantage of life is marital burnout which leads to emotional separation if left untreated. Therefore, the present study was conducted to identify the effective factors on marital burnout, which is one of the factors that increasing divorce in society. This study was conducted using qualitative method with emphasis on phenomenological approach. The study population consisted of all married men and women residing in Tehran and the purposeful sampling was done among those with marital burnout who referred to counseling clinic. Data collection was done through semi-structured interviews and data analysis was done based on data theory. Finally, 227 open codes, 21 concepts and 4 main categories were obtained. The main themes in this study included adverse communication characteristics, personality problems, exacerbation factors, and involvement with adverse outcomes of marital burnout that each of them also included some concepts. The findings indicated that the individual, relationship and family dimensions were involved in the formation of this phenomenon in marital relationships and the main focus of the research findings was "lack of affection and care in the relationship". Overall, the results showed that marital burnout is a process that has bad consequences in the physical, psycho-emotional, and social contexts and recommended that counselors and psychologists take more action on marital burnout and its growth factors.

Keywords


Ahola, K. (2007). Occupational burnout and health. Helsinki, Finland: Finnish Institute Occupational Health. [link]
Asadi, E., Mansour, L., Khodabakhshi Kolahi, A., & Fath Abadi, J. (2013). The Relationship between Couple Burnout, Sexual Assertiveness, and Sexual Dysfunctional Beliefs in Women Diabetic Husbands and Comparing Them with Non-Diabetic Husbands. J Fam Res, 9 (3): 24-311. [link]
Bakhshayesh, A. R., & Mortazavi, M. (2010). The relationship between sexual satisfaction, general health and marital satisfaction in coples. J Appl Psycol, 3(4): 73-85. [link]
Booth, H. (2010). Ethnic differentials in the timing of family formation: A case study of the complex interaction between ethnicity, socioeconomic level, and marriage market pressure. Demographic Research23, 153. [link]
Fellows, K.J., Chiu, H.Y., Hill, E.J., & Hawkins, A.J. (2016). Work–family conflict and couple relationship quality: a met-analytic study. Journal of Family and Economic Issue: 37(4):509-18. [link]
Huston, TL. (2009) Whats Love got to do with it? Why some marriages succeed and others fail. Personal Relationships, 16(3): 301-327. [link]
Koohi, S., Etemadi, O., & Fatehizade, M. (2014). The Relationship between Personality Characteristics, General Health, Contextual Factors, and Marital Dissatisfaction of Couples. Research in Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences, 4(1): 71-84. [link]
Lemay, E. P., & Neal, A. M. (2014). Accurate and biased perceptions of responsive support predict well-being. Motivation and Emotion38(2), 270-286. [link]
Lingern, H. G. (2013). Marriage burnout. From http:// she knows. Com. [link]
McNeil, S. N., Fincham, F. D., & Beach, S. R. (2014). Does spousal support moderate the association between perceived racial discrimination and depressive symptoms among African American couples?. Family process53(1), 109-119. [link]
Naderi, F., Eftekhar, Z., & Amolazade, S. (2011). Relationship between personality trait with intimate partner relationship in women with addicted husbands. J Women & Culture, 3(9): 83-98. [ link]
Neff, L. A., & Geers, A. L. (2013). Optimistic Expectations in Early Marriage: A Resource or Vulnerability for Adaptive Relationship Functioning? Journal of personality and Social Psychology, 105(1): 60-38. [link]
Pascoal, P. M., Narciso, I., & Pereira, N. M. (2013). Emotional intimacy is the best predictor of sexual satisfaction of men and women with sexual arousal problems. International journal of impotence research25(2), 51. [link]
Pines, A. M., Neal, M. B., Hammer, L. B., & Icekson T. (2011). Job burnout and couple burnout in dual- earner couples in the Sandwiched generation. Social Psychology Quarterly, 74, 361–86. [link]
Pines, AM. (2004). Adult attachment styles and their relationship to burnout: a preliminary, Cross-cultural investigation. Work and stress. 18(1) 66-80. [link]
Pines, A, M. Neal, M, B. Hammer, L, B., & Icekson, T. (2011). Job burnout and couple burnout in dual-earner couples in the sandwiched generation. Social Psychology Quarterly; 74(4):361-86. [link]
Rook, K. S., August, K. J., Choi, S., Franks, M. M., & Stephens, M. A. P. (2016). Emotional reactivity to daily stress, spousal emotional support, and fasting blood glucose among patients with type 2 diabetes. Journal of Health Psychology21(11), 2538-2549. [link]
Sirin, H, D., & Deniz, M. (2016). The Effect of the Family Training Program on Married Women's Couple-Burnout Levels. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice; 16(5):1563-85. [link]
Rajani, A. A., Azizi, L. S., Naeemi, S., Amiri, A. A., Javidan, M., Abad, H. D. G., & Hosseini, K. (2016). The effect of cognitive behavioral couple therapy on reduction of maital conflicts and burnout or couples. Turkish online Journal of Design Art and Communication, 6, 1649-1655. [link]
Shakerian, A., Fatemi, A., & Farhadian, M. (2011). A survey on Relationship between Personality Characteristics and Marital satisfaction. SJKU, 16(1): 92-99. [link]
Willoughby, BJ. (2013). Marital attitude trajectories across adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39: 1305-1317. [link]
References (In Persian)
Delavar, A. (2020). Probability and Applied Statistics in Psychology and Educational Sciences. Tehran: Roshd Publications. [link]
Gohari, S., zahrakar, K., Nazari, A, M,, salami, H. (2016). Prediction of marital burnout based on personality traits and sexual intimacy in married woman nurses in selected private hospitals in Tehran, 6 (3):59-70
URL: http://zums.ac.ir/nmcjournal/article-1-314-en.html. [link]
Hatami Varzaneh, A., Esmaeily, M., & Borjali, A. (2017). Long term satisfied marriage model: A grounded theory study. Family Counseling and Psychotherapy, 6(1), 120-149. [link]
Hosseini Birjandi, S.M. (2017). Counseling on the verge of marriage. Tehran: Avai Noor Publications. Fifth Edition. [link]
Jahani Dolatabad, E. (2017). A Theoretical Explanation of Marital Conflicts by Paradigmatic ApproachJournal of Family Research, Vol. 13, No. 1. [link]
Karami boldaji, R., Sabetzadeh, M., Zarei, E., & Sadeghifard, M. (2015). Effectiveness of Rational- Emotive- Behavior Group Counseling (REBT) on Irrational Attitudes about Spouse Selection in Girls and Boys. Research in Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences, 4(2), 171-188. [link]
KeshavarzAfshar, H., Geravand, A., & Ahmai, A. (2014). The Effect of Cognitive-Behavioral Group Training on Marital Expectations of Married Males and Females of Kouhdasht City. Family Counseling and Psychotherapy, 3(4), 641-661. [link]
Padash, Z. (2012).The Effectiveness of Quality of Life Therapy on Marital Satisfaction of Isfahan Spouses. Master thesis. Family counseling. University of Esfahan. [link]
panahi, m., kazemi jamarani, sh., Enayatpour Shahrbabaki, M., & rostami, M. (2017). Effectiveness of integrative behavioral couple therapy on reducing marital burnout and fear in couples of intimacyQuarterly of Applied Psychology,Vol. 11, No. 3. [link]
Smaeeli Far, N., jayervand, H., rasoli, M., HASANI, J. (2019). A Grounded-Theory Study of the Underlying Factors of Couple Burnout. Women Studies, 10(27), 25-51. [link]
Zahrakar, K., Hezarosi, B., Mohsanzade, F., & Tajikesmaaili, A. (2019). Underlying factors of emotional divorce in socio_ cultural context of Karaj. Family Counseling and Psychotherapy, 9(1), 125-142. [link]