the concept of privacy from the perspective of couples: A phenomenological study

This study aimed to evaluate the concept of privacy from the perspective of couples. This was a qualitative study based on a descriptive phenomenological approach. The study population consisted of all couples living in Tehran in 2020 who were married for 1 to 10 years, some of whom were selected as the sample by using the purposive sampling method until data saturation (12 women and 6 men). The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and then they were analyzed by Colaizzi interpretive analysis method. After coding the views of participants about privacy, 4 main themes and 31 sub-themes were extracted. The four main themes included privacy conceptualization, factors affecting the privacy of couples, consequences of privacy with tight boundaries, and examples of privacy. The results showed that each person considers privacy for himself/herself, and privacy is generally a relative concept. Examples of privacy include factors such as family issues, mobile phones, communication with friends, clothing, work issues, and thoughts and emotions. Since marital relationships are inherently complicated, it is difficult to consider inflexible boundaries of privacy for couples. In addition, complete adherence to privacy with tight boundaries in a marital relationship can reduce spouses’ trust in each other as well as the stability of their relationship.