Percepções sobre crises na conjugalidade em casais de longa duração

Abstract

Even though the duration of marital relationships has been decreasing in the face of rising divorce rates, many couples remain together across the life cycle. In Brazil and around the world, there are few studies that investigate the specificities of long-term married life. The present research aimed to understand the perception of long-term couples regarding crises across the family life cycle. It was a qualitative study, with a collective case study design, that investigated the marital experience of five heterosexual couples in a relationship lasting at least 30 years and with children. Data collection instruments included a sociodemographic questionnaire, semi-structured interviews on marital life, and the couple's timeline. For the analysis of the results, reflective thematic analysis was used, presented and discussed in two articles: “Conceptions about crisis and conflict management in long-term couples” and “Crises experienced by long-term couples throughout the family life cycle.” In the first article, factors associated with marital crises were identified, such as aspects related to relational dynamics, including the quality of communication between the couple, the presence of insecurity and jealousy, infidelity, personality differences between spouses, routine and monotony, conflicts related to parenting, financial adversity, illness, and having experienced violence in their families of origin. As coping strategies, the dyads emphasized the understanding that crises are part of life, the use of dialogue, mutual support, humor, the sharing of leisure activities, the use of support networks, and religiosity. The second article addressed topics related to the family and marital life cycle in five thematic axes: (1) The early years of the relationship; (2) Transition to parenthood and cohabitation with adult children and their families; (3) New generational roles—retirement and becoming grandparents; (4) Health care and caring for the previous generation; and (5) Mature marital life and perspectives on the future as a couple. Events such as marriage, the birth of children, and achievements during the acquisition phase were considered positive for the marriage, while family losses, illness, unemployment, and financial difficulties were reported as negative events. The need to support adult children, grief over children's separations, difficulties related to insecurity about retirement conditions, and the possibility of not becoming grandparents emerged as relevant themes in this study. The results show that long-term couples sustained their relationships through emotional commitment and attributed great importance to marital satisfaction and mutual support.