Journal of Counseling Research

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Purpose: Sacrifice is regarded an important component in improving the quality of enduring marital relationship. The purpose of this study was to study the lived experience of sacrifice in marital relationship and identify the final structure of the sacrifice phenomenon among the research participants.
 Method: In this descriptive phenomenological Psychological study a total of 10 participants were selected using purposive-voluntary sampling and conducting in-depth interview until data saturation was reached.
 Results: Data analysis led to a structure which included 12 constituents: 1- Having a sense of love for wife in marriage, 2- having a sense of humanity, conscience and personal development, 3- belief in religious, spiritual and sacrifice behaviors, 4- belief in the necessity of mutual sacrifice  behaviors, 5-perception of one-way and damaging sacrifice, 6- belief in correlates of sacrifice behavior such as forgiveness and tolerance of hardship, 7- need to be appreciated for sacrificing behavior, 8- perceiving sacrifice as unselfishness and devoting self for another, 9- having a long-term positive attitude and commitment toward marriage, 10- sacrificing because of factors other than spouse such as children, 11- modeling the family of origin, and 12- considering gender differences in sacrifice behaviors.
 Conclusion: The results of this study have implications for counseling centers and professionals in education and couple therapy as well as premarital counseling .With understanding the structure of sacrifice, as defined in the present study, will help couple avoid marital dissatisfaction and enhance marital quality and satisfaction.
 

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Goal: The goal of the present research is to determine the components of loneliness of teenage girls based on their lived experiences
Method: the present research was a qualitative research and the phenomenological method was used to conduct it. The sampling was goal-oriented i.e. the UCLA loneliness questionnaires were completed by teenage girls whose average age was 16 of whom 30 people whose loneliness grades were above the cut-off point were selected as the research population. The main research tool was interviewing and the data were saturated after 15 interviews and coding using the grounded theory.
Findings: The findings of the present research showed that the components of loneliness of teenage girls based on their lived experiences appear in the following order: 1- Loneliness in the family, 2. Communicative/social loneliness, 3. Emotional/personal loneliness. Considering the results of the interview and the thorough investigation into the loneliness experiences of teenage girls, it seemed that they mostly suffered from loneliness in the family like the feelings of being dismissed, ignored, blamed and also the feeling of mistrust of them on the part of their families. They deeply felt in their relationships and social environments that their needs for a companion and supporter were not met, and they suffered from finding no common grounds with others; also, they were unable to forge relationships with others and felt lonely despite being surrounded by people. Also, they experienced some emotions such as mistrust of others, hopelessness and surrender to loneliness and they were unable to express their feelings.
Conclusion: Feeling lonely in the family constituted an important part of the loneliness of teenage girls after which the communicative/ social and emotional/ personal factors take precedence respectively. With regard to the fact that the present research has been conducted in the cultural context of Iran, it seems necessary to consider the above-mentioned components in the therapeutic interventions and educational programs to prevent or treat the loneliness of teenage girls.
 

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Aim: Dyspareunia and vaginismus are important issues in the lives of women with these disorders and have adverse, damaging consequences for the individual, the family, and the couple's intimacy. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the lived experience of women with dyspareunia and vaginismus. Methods: The method of this study was descriptive-phenomenological psychological in which nine female participants suffering from dyspareunia and vaginismus were selected through purposeful sampling and data collection was continued through semi-structured interviews until data saturation was reached. After collecting the data and transcribing them, the researcher used Giorgi’s five-step phenomenological data analysis method. Results: Analyzing data led to 12 contributing components of the lived experience of women with dyspareunia and vaginismus which included: lack of awareness, experiencing the physical symptoms of anxiety, fear, predicting pain, feeling of inadequacy and inferiority, feeling of shame, hatred of sex and of spouse, a feeling of suffering, feeling of anger, feeling of guilt, decreased emotional and sexual intimacy, and regret about marriage. Conclusion: The results of this study also enrich the previous research literature on the lived experience of dyspareunia and vaginismus. Also, the structure of the lived experience of dyspareunia and vaginismus derived from this study is widely used to develop and apply preventive and therapeutic programs for this condition and its consequences.

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Aim: The present study was conducted to study the lived experiences of graduate students in the field of counseling and to examine the influence of their education process on their views on marriage and marital relationships. Methods: The method of this research was qualitative and phenomenological in type. Participants in this study were 16 graduate students, selected through purposeful sampling. Data collection was done through semi-structured interviews. Findings: In the dimension of positive experiences, 4 main themes were obtained that included raising awareness, growing awareness of personal abilities, improving interpersonal communication skills, and experiences around marriage. Finally, the following themes of the main categories are understood: self-awareness, increasing awareness of other people's personality traits, growing self-confidence, feeling beneficial, improvement of family and social relationships, achieving a systemic view in the family, increasing empathy, control emotions, changes in attitudes toward premarital acquaintance and emphasis on premarital counseling, new attitudes about marriage, importance of awareness about premarital counseling, and changes in gender stereotypes (in male participants). In the dimension of negative experiences, the main themes included experiences related to the phenomenon of marriage and negative effects on relationships. The following themes were extracted: decreased emotional excitement about the partner, increased sensitivity and obsession in relationships, change in attitudes toward men (on the part of female participants), creating a sense misunderstanding in family and social relationships due to differences in the level of knowledge, and existence of some level of irrational expectations from graduates in this field. Conclusion: According to the findings, the lived experience of participants showed that studying counseling can influence the personal life and perspective about marriage and marital relationships from different aspects.

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Parent-child interaction and the factors that lead to the improvement and promotion of this interaction are among the important and favorite fields for researchers. The present study was conducted to develop a curriculum for positive parent-child interaction, based on the lived experiences of parents of children with ADHD. This research is of qualitative type which has been done using phenomenological methodology. The study population consisted of mothers with children having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder who referred to counseling clinics in welfare districts 1 and 3 of Tehran during the year 2020 who had first-hand experience of the phenomenon. Purposeful sampling included mothers with children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. After administering the CSI-4 Child Symptoms Questionnaire (Gado and Sprafkin 1997) and the Parent-Child Interaction Questionnaire (Pianta 1994) to these mothers, those who scored above average were interviewed in a semi-structured interview and this process continued until a theoretical saturation was reached. Interviews were analyzed using the seven-step Claysian method. By adapting the obtained sub-themes below these main themes with the characteristics of the stages of change of Prochaska and Norcross 1992 (translated by Avadis Jans, 1399), the steps of the positive parent-child interaction program were developed. By analyzing the research findings, the following main themes were identified as characteristics of lived experiences of mothers with positive parent-child interaction with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder: Managing the child's energy level, monitoring tasks and responsibilities, supportive and organized mother-child relationship and situation management dependent on hyperactivity. According to the obtained results, it can be concluded that the developed program of positive parent-child interaction is practical and counselors can use this program in working with mothers with children with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder.