Never married individuals' life styles: Stigmatization in the social context

Studies in the field of family sociology are generally conducted on married couples, divorced and remarried individuals. As a result of the changes in the family and marriage patterns in the last 50 years, the nuclear family lost its dominance. New family types and alternative forms of relationship to the family have become more visible. Staying single has gradually become a preferred lifestyle in recent years among alternative lifestyles such as single-parent families, cohabitation, and living apart together (LAT). Although singlehood as an increasingly preferred lifestyle represents a new area of research, studies on this area remain scarce in number. As an alternative lifestyle, singlehood indicates a different social interaction model. Studying singlehood is important for sociology due to its position in terms of human relationships and the stigmatization about these relationships. In this research, the aim was to carry out a descriptive study by showing singles' lifestyle, their life experiences and opinions about singlehood, perceptions and prejudices developed against them, and the difficulties they face in their social lives. In this study, stigma and theory of structuration were used together in the theoretical framework to illustrate how single people relate to the structure and the negative and stigmatizing behaviors that emerge due to prejudices. This study uses phenomenological approach as a qualitative research method to describe how single people evaluate their singlehood, how they made this choice and how they make sense of their lives. Semi-structured questionnaire and in-depth interview technique were used to collect data about different aspects of single people's lives. By using this technique, the aims were 1) to understand how single people evaluate their lives and what connects them to life, 2) to understand their perspectives on family and marriage, 3) to learn their thoughts about an ideal intimate relationship, 4) to describe what meaning they attribute to their homes and, 5), to find out whether they encountered stigmatizing/negative behaviours due to being single. The data analysis shows that singlehood has a multi-layered structure and there are various singlehood profiles that are shaped by different experiences of single people. Keywords: Singlehood, Family, Stigma, Theory of Structuration, Phenomenological Approach.