The role of family emotional support in the quality of married life (from women's perspective)

The quality of married life is very important for people. The present study aims to identify women's understanding of the nature of emotional support in the family and its role and importance in the quality of married life. This research was done with a qualitative approach and with a database method. According to the theoretical saturation of the data, the research sample consisted of 16 married women from districts 9 and 10 of Tehran, who were in the age range of 20 to 45 years. These people were selected by purposeful sampling method and in an accessible manner and having criteria for entering the research, including satisfaction with married life in the year 1400. Data were collected and adjusted using Enrich questionnaire and semi-structured exploratory interview. The findings of the research include 94 open codes, 10 central codes, and the selective code of "family support-emotional". The underlying factors included individual psychological capitals such as authority and self-control, personal meanings in marriage such as the meaning of intimacy and the meaning of consolidating in the relationship, and interpersonal dynamics such as joint decision-making and conflict resolution management. Intervening factors included cultural and social factors such as a supportive lifestyle that played a role in the emotional support of people in the family. Factors such as interference from people around and fanatical lifestyle were identified as barriers to reducing the emotional functioning of the family. The identified strategies included exaltation such as the exaltation of self and family, comforting such as loving, skill acquisition and conscious living such as conversation skills and conflict resolution skills. These strategies caused individual consequences such as happiness, self-worth and hope and interpersonal consequences such as feeling secure and satisfied in the relationship. According to the findings of the research, it can be concluded that emotional support in the family has consequences, the primary outcome of which includes increasing flexibility and adaptability in the family, and the secondary outcome of which includes increasing the quality of life and reducing the factors of disintegration in the family. These factors lead to people's mental health and the formation of a desirable family and social life, and require the attention of therapists and counselors to increase health and advance society's goals.