Coping with singleness

Shakiba Pourasad Shahrak; Serge Brand; Ziba Taghizadeh

doi:10.1186/s40695-023-00086-1

Coping with singleness

Womens Midlife Health. 2023 Feb 21;9(1):3. doi: 10.1186/s40695-023-00086-1.

Authors

Shakiba Pourasad Shahrak¹, Serge Brand^{2

3

4

5

6}, Ziba Taghizadeh⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Midwifery and Reproductive Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
² Center for Affective, Stress and Sleep Disorders (ZASS), Psychiatric Clinics (UPK), University of Basel, 4002, Basel, Switzerland.
³ Division of Sport Science and Psychosocial Health, Department of Sport, Exercise, and Health, University of Basel, 4052, Basel, Switzerland.
⁴ Substance Abuse Prevention Research Center, Health Institute, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, 67146, Iran.
⁵ Sleep Disorders Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, 67146, Iran.
⁶ School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, 25529, Iran.
⁷ Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, and Department of Midwifery and Reproductive Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. zibataghizadeh@yahoo.com.

Abstract

Background: The number of never-married women is increasing worldwide. According to a recent census (2016) this trend is also apparent in Iran. The aim of the present study was to investigate how never-married Iranian women cope with their single status.

Methods: The present study was qualitative in nature. Purposeful sampling with maximum variation was used to select 18 never-married women aged over 35. Data were analyzed on the basis of conventional content analysis and inductive reasoning.

Results: One hundred fifty-four codes, nine subcategories, three categories, and one theme were extracted. The three categories were: (1) responding to sexual needs (sub-categories: having sex; masturbation; sexual abstinence); (2) responding to emotional needs (sub-categories: getting used to being alone; living with family; closer relationship with good friends); (3) lifestyle changes (subcategories: accepting God's destiny; striving for beauty and health; becoming absorbed in work and education).

Conclusions: Results showed that never-married women aged over 35 tried to adapt to sexual and emotional needs and lifestyle changes as proxies of singleness in various ways. It appears that these women adopted several strategies to cope with the lack of a spouse, children, or family life, these normally being developmental tasks characteristic of early adulthood.