Marital Delay in Kashmir a Qualitative Study

Abstract

The present study investigated the trend of Marital Delay among Kashmiri married couples using qualitative approach. The data is collected from the coordinators of Marriage Counseling Centers of three major cities (Baramulla, Sopore and Srinagar) of Kashmir division of Jammu and Kashmir State of India through semi-structured interviews. The Phenomenological design was intended to elicit the perceptions and experience of their counseling services of Kashmiri prospective couples and married couples. The qualitative data was coded and analyzed by Tape Analysis to the voice recorded semi-structured interviews. Marital Delay emerged as the major theme of the study by an in-depth analysis of the responses given by respondents. The three sub themes which emerge from the qualitative analysis are; Completion of Education, Unemployment and Marriage Preparation in financial context. The implications of the present study elucidated in the present paper range from personal growth in marital relationships, mate selection and providing valuable inputs to the psychologists and other professionals involved in marital interventions to the actual understanding of marriage institution in Kashmir.