The Meaning of Marriage According to University Students: A Phenomenological Study

The aim of this study is to reveal the meanings university students attribute to marriage. The sample of the study consists of 14 final year students (7 males and 7 females), whose ages range between 22 and 32, studying in the Education Faculty at Ege University. The study is of phenomenological research design. Semi-structured interview forms were used as the data collection tool of the study. The data was analyzed with content analysis based on the inductive analysis method. Themes were constituted out of the codes. The analysis results suggest that marriage mostly evokes positive emotions among the participants; the premarital phase consists of self-knowledge, choosing the right life partner and deciding to marry stages, and students emphasized social relations, financial issues, relationship with family of origin, communication and roles in the marriage in association with the marriage process. According to the final year students, the unchanged but definitive constructs of marriage are deciding on marriage, key elements of marriage and marriage dynamics. The study results were also discussed in relation to the literature and some implications were suggested.