Emotion regulation in marriage: Examining the views of women about emotion regulation

In this study, it is aimed to examine in depth the views of women on regulating their emotions in the problems they experience in their relationships with their spouses. The study was carried out with 30 women who had problems in their marriage. In the study, phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. A semi-structured interview form was used to collect data. In the analysis of the data, qualitative content analysis was used according to its approach. According to the process, both deductive and inductive content analysis were used. Data were analyzed using the "MAXQDA 2022" software package. With the analysis of the data, 4 themes emerged. These themes are; experiencing emotions, expressing emotions, emotion regulation strategies, and external regulation strategies. According to the results of the research, women in their relations with their husbands; They experienced various positive emotions such as happiness, love, trust, respect, and worthiness. When women had problems with their spouses, they experienced various negative emotions such as irritability, sadness, resentment, disappointment, hatred, and hurt. Women expressed their feelings to their spouses mostly verbally. Their spouses mostly responded behaviorally to women's emotional expressions. Women used strategies such as situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment, and cognitive change to regulate their emotions. Their spouses, on the other hand, used strategies such as taking heart, suppression, verbal interaction, and getting from the bottom to regulate women's emotions.