Exploring the Lived Experiences of Childless Couples Regarding Cultural Pressures and the Representation of Marital Identity

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of childless couples regarding cultural pressures surrounding childbearing and the ways they represent, defend, and reconstruct their marital identity within familial and social contexts. This qualitative study was conducted using a descriptive phenomenological design. The participants included 24 individuals, consisting of 12 childless married couples living in Tehran, Iran. They were selected through purposive sampling with maximum variation in age, marriage duration, education, employment status, and orientation toward childbearing. Inclusion criteria were being married for at least three years, having no children, residing in Tehran, willingness to participate, and the ability to articulate lived experiences. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews and continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. All interviews were recorded with informed consent, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using thematic analysis with the aid of NVivo software. Credibility was enhanced through member checking, peer debriefing, prolonged engagement with the data, and an audit trail. Data analysis led to the extraction of five main categories: “childbearing as a criterion for marital completion,” “deficit-based interpretations of marital and gender identity,” “erosion of private boundaries in encounters with family and relatives,” “strategies for managing stigma and social pressure,” and “reconstruction of marital identity based on choice, intimacy, and relational sufficiency.” Participants described childlessness not merely as the absence of children but as an interpretive social position through which the quality of their marriage, gender maturity, future stability, and moral responsibility were repeatedly judged by others. The findings indicated that childlessness in a family-oriented cultural context is a multilayered and identity-shaping experience. While couples encounter direct and indirect pronatalist pressures, they also actively redefine the meaning of marriage, intimacy, and relational continuity. Family counselors should attend to stigma, family boundary management, and alternative narratives of marital completeness when working with childless couples.