Love Experience Construct Within the Context of the Iranian Family

Document Type : Research

Authors

Atefeh Bagheriyan Ziarat ¹

Ali Akbar Majdi ²

Gholamreza Sedigh Ouraee ²

¹ MA student in Social Science Research, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

² Associate Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22067/social.2025.55402.0

Abstract

The experience of love, uniquely constructed for each person, is shaped by a combination of personal and social factors that collectively build the individual's social world. The family is among the most pivotal environments influencing the quality of this experience. Parenting constructs within the family can significantly impact an individual’s romantic experiences. Specifically, parenting styles that meet a person’s need for respect, validation, and acceptance tend to predispose them toward love experiences rooted in consumerist tendencies. Conversely, parenting styles that allow children to transcend the lower levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs—ultimately enabling them to pursue self-actualization—foster willingness for a generative, profound romantic experience. The present study aims to understand how the quality of a person's relationships within the family manifest in the quality of their romantic connections. To address this, we used narrative inquiry method to reconstruct the romantic stories of 5 women and 6 men and collected data on relationship quality with their parent’s families. Overall, two attachment patterns emerged: secure and insecure. Participants who experienced a safe, attentive family environment captured love experience with an efficient self-perception associating love experience with a sense of fulfilment, growth and satisfaction. In contrast, those who were raised in a cold, insecure, and neglectful familial environments, interacting with inattentive and dismissive parents, exhibited a deficient self-perception, felt insecure, and as a coping mechanism, used their romantic relationships to compensate for their vulnerabilities. Results suggest that participants experienced their romantic relationships within two distinct patterns. Those who were satisfied with their romantic experiences and viewed love as a means of personal growth experienced secure parenting styles and entered their relationships with a sense of sufficiency. On the contrary, those who found their romantic experiences detrimental experienced insecure parenting styles, and their romantic relationships were primarily reactive responses to their initial insecurities.
 

Keywords

Love Experience

Family

Narrative Research

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