Justifications, Excuses, and Self-blame: How Serial Marriers and Cohabiters Account for their Unexpected Relationship Histories

• In Event: 2163 - Instability and Violence in Marital Relationships

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how people who have had multiple marital or cohabiting relationships make sense of their unconventional relationship histories. This involved recording and transcribing the personal stories of 67 serially married and/or cohabiting men and women. Thematic analysis of the transcripts revealed that serial marriers and cohabiters employ “accounts” in the form of justifications, excuses, and self-blame to explain the discrepancy between their lived experiences of love and marriage and other people’s expectations. The study explores the rhetorical themes in their accounts, the different forms that their accounts took, and how the accounts within their stories varied between men and women. It concludes by exploring how the findings from this study may apply to the story-telling process in other areas of personal and family life where individuals have experienced a series of events that stray from social expectations.

Author

• Chris Wienke, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale