Emerging Adult Women’s Views-of-Self in Intimate Partner Relationships That Are Troubled

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to describe how emerging adult (EA) women describe their views-of-self in troubled relationships. Fourteen EA women (ages 18–25 years) wrote four stories about their troubled relationships during a guided-writing intervention. Qualitative descriptive methods and content analysis were used to identify common views-of-self. Four views-of-self in troubled relationships and contrasting views-of-self emerged: (i) silent self-vocal self, (ii) sacrificing self-prioritized self, (iii) caretaking self-boundary-setting self, and (iv) insecure self-secure self. Mental health nurses and other clinicians can use these views-of-self pairs to guide their discussions with EA young women who are involved in troubled relationships.

Acknowledgment

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.