The Pathology of the Dual-Career Couples: A Qualitative Study

INTRODUCTION: The structure of traditional family was now changing towards the dual-career ones and due to the impacts that dual-career couples have on the structure of the family, it was necessary to investigate these effects from a discovery perspective. On this base, the present study aims to investigate the pathology of the Iranian dual-career couples’ life.

METHOD: In terms of methodology, the study was done qualitatively and it was validated by the grounded theory. The participants were dual-career couples in Yazd. The sampling was done purposefully with 24 participants in a half-organized interview. A theoretically codified method and grounded theory were used to analyze and validate data gathered in this respect.

FINDINGS: The findings of the study showed that the pathology of the dual-career couples based on three issues and aspects include entity and conceptual and abstract contents. It included A: reasons and elements (career- family and family-career conflicts, the hierarchical order for power and influence, issues and management of financial and economic affairs), B: actions (the responsibility division, the problem of sexual and marital relations in, the issues of child raising and child rearing, decrease of intimacy and the time of being together), and C: consequences (lack of happiness and joy, decrease of the relations with the relatives, nutritional, spiritual and psychological issues).

CONCLUSION: Generally, the results of the study showed that dual-career couples’ experience the pathology and conflicts influence their job and these pathologies were presented in the form of a conceptual model.