Problem: Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this qualitative interpretative phenomenological study is to explore the emotional, psychological, and relational lived experiences of Jamaican heterosexual spouses who remain behind during overseas employment-related marital separation, with particular attention to how spousal separation is perceived in terms of agency, choice, and constraint. This study seeks to understand how spouses make meaning of prolonged marital separation and how these appraisals shape emotional strain, coping, resilience, and marital functioning over time. The study employs a qualitative phenomenological design using semi-structured interviews and reflective diaries to examine participants' perceptions of choice, constraint, and coping over time within long-distance marriages. Diary entries will be analyzed alongside interview data to examine temporal shifts in meaning-making and appraisal across a 6-8 week data collection period. This present study focuses on heterosexual spouses within the Jamaican context because marriage is culturally and religiously valorized within migration-related family arrangements and kinship expectations (Thornton, 2021), and because much Caribbean scholarship on migration, gender, and family has been shaped by heteronormative frameworks that implicitly center heterosexual marital relationships, providing a coherent theoretical and empirical foundation for contextual comparison (Cabieses et al., 2024).
Accordingly, this study is guided by the following research questions: How do Jamaican left-behind heterosexual spouses describe their experiences of long-distance marital separation resulting from overseas employment? How do left-behind heterosexual spouses perceive their separation in terms of choice, constraint, or a combination of both? How do spouses describe the ways their perceptions of choice and constraint relate to emotional distress, coping processes, and resilience during long-distance marital separation? How do perceptions of choice and constraint influence marital relationship functioning within long-distance heterosexual marriages?
The study further aims to generate culturally grounded knowledge that may inform mental health practice, organizational and expatriate support programs, and family-focused policies by illuminating the lived experiences, emotional challenges, and resilience strategies of Jamaican left-behind spouses.
Based on the information provided above, provide details regarding the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, with Self-Determination Theory serving as a complementary framework for understanding appraisal, autonomy, and coping during prolonged separation. Need Assignment Help?