Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Journal of Family Communication, cilt.24, sa.3-4, ss.244-258, 2024 (ESCI)
In Turkey, married couples are traditionally not considered families until they include children. Moreover, voluntarily childfree married couples in this culture are marginalized and struggle to legitimate their choices. Using relational dialectics theory, we sought to better understand these couples’ experiences by identifying the discourses they use in their meaning-making around family. Husbands and wives from eight childfree couples in heterosexual marriages participated in in-depth interviews. Contrapuntal analysis identified two primary discourses: the discourse of families include children (DFIC) and the discourse of couples are families (DCAF). The DCAF challenged the DFIC, which frames having children as achieving an accepted family, creating meaningful life and marriage, and as an inevitable result for married couples. The DCAF recognizes that families do not need children, create their own happiness, and can (re)make their choices about adding children. Findings have implications for professionals supporting couples about deciding to be childfree in this culture.