Reaction to Marital Conflict: An Intergenerational Study

This research was conducted to compare the reaction of married people to marital conflict among three generations of women and two generations of men.
The study was a qualitative research and the target population was all married people belonging to last three generations living in Tehran in 2014. Sampling was conducted in two stages using convenience and purposive methods. Data were collected through in-depth interview with a total of 45 people, with 9 people in each generation group (the first, second and third generation of women and the second and third generation of men). The interviews with women were conducted at their residences and with men were done over the telephone. The collected data were coded using content analysis method.
In this research, information was gathered through interviews with 9 daughters, 9 mothers and 9 grandmothers with an average (±SD) age of 27±2.5, 49±4.7 and 71±6.1, respectively. Also, interviews were conducted with 9 sons and 9 fathers with an average (±SD) age of 28±1.2 and 45±6.3, respectively. Data analysis showed that conflict avoidance in the second generation was more than the third generation. Compared with the women, men reported less conflict avoidance in bringing up the conflicting issues.
It seems that some factors such as people’s age differences, life cycle and differences in standards influence their behavior during marital conflict.