The process of construction and formation of maternal identity in early marriage: A Grounded Theory Study

Subject Areas : Psychology

Kazem Sattari Sefidan Jadid ¹ , Mansooreh Hajhosseini ² , Sedighe Safaie ³

1 - PhD., Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran. Iran
2 - Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
3 - PhD., Department of Psychology, Faculty of Economy and Social Sciences, University of Bu-Ali-Sina, Hamedan, Iran

Received: 2024-12-31 Accepted : 2025-03-08 Published : 2025-03-19

Keywords: Maternal identity, Early marriage, Grounded theory,

Abstract :

The present study was purposed to study the construction and formation process of maternal identity in early marriage based on the grounded theory. The statistical population included the female who married under the age of 15. The sample embraced 23 female based on the participants’ saturation principle whom were selected via purposive sampling procedure.   This study was with qualitative approach and grounded theory oriented. The data were collected through a semi- structured interview with open end questions and analyzed and categorized based on the grounded theory of Strauss and Corbin approach. After examining and categorizing the findings in three stages of open, central and selective coding, 350 open codes, 48 sub-categories and 11 main categories were obtained. Results of the research showed that maternal identity construction and formation process was conceptualized based on life without childhood identity and individual and cultural factors of marriage as causal conditions, social pressure leading to unavoidable life choices and basic challenges and problems as background conditions, mother learning patterns and acute crises in joint life as intervention conditions, changing the life path, incompatible problem solving and adaptive problem solving were as strategies and motherhood style and their life satisfaction and future outlook as a consequence.

References:

Abera, M., Nega, A., Tefera, Y., & Gelagay, A. A. (2020). Early marriage and women’s empowerment: the case of child-brides in Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia. BMC international health and human rights, 20, 1-16. URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12914-020-00249-5
Baysak, E., Yorguner, N., Kandemir, G., Denizman, I. A., & Akvardar, Y. (2021). Is early marriage practice a problem for women living in Istanbul? A qualitative study. Archives of women's mental health, 24(2), 243-250. URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00737-020-01067-3
Cislaghi, B., Mackie, G., Nkwi, P., & Shakya, H. (2019). Social norms and child marriage in Cameroon: An application of the theory of normative spectrum. Glob Public Health, 14(10),1479-1494. URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17441692.2019.1594331
De Groot, R., Kuunyem, M. Y., Palermo, T., de Groot, R., Palermo, T., Osei-Akoto, I., et al. (2018). Child marriage and associated outcomes in northern Ghana: a cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health, 18(1), 285. URL: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29482546
Diala, J. (2019). The child in a child: child marriage and lost identity in southern Africa. Pravni Vjesnik, 35(2), 23-32.URL: https://hrcak.srce.hr/ojs/index.php/pravni-vjesnik
Efevbera, Y., & Bhabha, J. (2020). Defining and deconstructing girl child marriage and applications to global public health. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1547- 1560. URL: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33054856/
Farahmand, M., Danafar, F., & Poorebrahimabadi, M. (2021). Analysis of the marital experiences of the spouse's child: Emotional-intellectual and powerless fusion. Journal of Contemporary Sociological Research, 9(17), 115-45. URL: https://csr.basu.ac.ir/article_3934.html
Gastón, S., Colleen, M., & Misunas, C. (2019). Child marriage among boys: a global overview of available data. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 14(3), 219–228. URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17450128.2019.1566584
Hajhosseini, M. (2020). Experience of adoption and the formation of maternal identity in adoptive infertile women. women s studies (Sociological & Psychological), 17(4), 7-36. URL: https://jwsps.alzahra.ac.ir/
Jafary, E., Haghighatian, M., & Mohamadi, A. (2022). Examination of the relationship between lifestyle and social support on women's maternal identity (Case study: Women in Isfahan). Journal of Woman & Society, 13(1), 223-38. URL: https://jzvj.marvdasht.iau.ir/article_5140.html?lang=en
Luo, D. M., Yan, X. J., Hu, P. J., Zhang, J. S., Song, Y., & Ma, J. (2020). Subnational inequalities of early marriage and fertility among Chinese females from 1990 to 2010. Beijing Da Xue Xue Bao Yi Xue Ban, 52(3), 479-480. URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12274-020-2755-3
Mabemba, T., & Ngenisiwe, N. (2023). Marriage system in zimbabwe and Its implication on child marriage. Peer-review Journal Refereed Journal Indexed Journal Multidisciplinary, 2, 12-17. URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
Makransky, G., Wismer, P., & Mayer, R. E. (2019). A gender matching effect in learning with pedagogical agents in an immersive virtual reality science simulation. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 35(3), 349-358.‏ URL: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-61586-001
McDougal, L., Jackson, E. C., McClendon, K. A., Belayneh, Y., Sinha, A., & Raj, A. (2018). Beyond the statistic: exploring the process of early marriage decision-making using qualitative findings from Ethiopia and India. BMC Women's Health, 18(1), 144-156. URL: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30143040/
Mefodeva, V., Sidari, M. J., Chau, H., Fitzsimmons, B., Antoine, G., Clarkson, T. R., ... & Dixson, B. J. (2020). Multivariate intra-sexual selection on men’s perceptions of male facial morphology. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology., 33, 129-140. URL: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/
Njad, S. L., & Omidvar, B. (2019). A causal explanation of maternal sense of competency: the study role of parental self-efficacy of mothers and cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Journal of Woman & Society, 9(4), 1-16. URL: https://jzvj.marvdasht.iau.ir/article
Petroni, S., Steinhaus, M., Fenn, N. S., Stoebenau, K., & Gregowski, A. (2017). New Findings on Child Marriage in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ann Glob Health, 83(5-6), 781-90. URL: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29248095/
Plesons, M., Travers, E., Malhotra, A., Finnie, A., Maksud, N., Chalasani, S., & Chandra-Mouli, V. (2021). Updated research gaps on ending child marriage and supporting married girls for 2020–2030. Reproductive Health, 18, 152–170. URL: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34284797/
Safavi, H.S., & Minaei, M. (2015). Lived Experiences of Teenage Girls as Wives: Case Study of Girl's Early Marriage in AranvaBidgol. Pazuhesname - Ye Zanan, 6(2), 87-106. [Persian] URL: https://womenstudy.ihcs.ac.ir/article_1698.html
Satoorian, A., Tahmassian, K., & Ahmadi, M. R. (2017). The Role of Parenting Dimensions and Child-Parent Relationship in Children's Internalized and Externalized Behavioral Problems. Journal of Family Research, 12(48), 683-695. URL: https://jfr.sbu.ac.ir/article_97463.html
Schaffnit, S. B., Hassan, A., Urassa, M., & Lawson, D. W.(2019). Parent-offspring conflict unlikely to explain 'child marriage' in northwestern Tanzania. Nat Hum Behav, 3(4), 346-53. URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0535-4
Shahryari, M., & Bagheri, M. (2023). The Lived Experience of Child-Married Women Regarding Social Norms and Early Marriage. Woman and family studies, 11(2), 124-57.[Persian] URL: https://jwfs.alzahra.ac.ir/article
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. URL: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1990-98829-000
Umen, J., & Coelho, S. (2019). Algal sex determination and the evolution of anisogamy. Annual Review of Microbiology, 73, 267-291. URL: https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-micro-020518-120011
UNICEF. (2018). UNICEF annual report 2018 for every child, every right. URL: www.unicef.org