HOW COUPLES PERCEIVE THEIR MARRIAGE?: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Marriage contributes to the mental health of the individuals and community and to the order of society. For this reason, the aim of this study is to determine how married couples perceive their marriage. The participants of this study are 57 married couples (114 individuals, 57 females and 57 males) live in Mersin province in 2015 and reached by snowball sampling method. The data of the studies were collected by the researchers' "Marriage Perception Form". Participants were asked about the ideal marriage expectation, the areas where they had problems in their marriage, the methods they used to cope with stressful situations in their marriage, and the expectations of their own marriages. The data obtained after the transfer of the documents in the form of the forms collected from the participants to the computer environment were analyzed by means of content analysis through qualitative data analysis methods. According to the results obtained, the participants' ideal marriage expectancies are combined on a marriage expectation based on "love, respect and understanding" for both male and female participants. Among these participants, women most frequently refer to "child rearing and family elders" and men talked about “raising children and disagreements”. However, both female and male participants frequently stated that they had no problem in their marriage. At the same time, married couples cope with these problems during their marriage by talking, being calm and silent; men participants are choosing the methods by talking, being quiet and going to quiet surroundings. Finally, while these couples hope a happy and respectful marriage based on their female love for their marriage; male participants also expect a marriage based on happiness, peace and love. These results were discussed and suggested in the light of studies in the related field