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) 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: (1) silent self-vocal self, (2) sacrificing self-prioritized self, (3) caretaking self-boundary-setting self, and (4) 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.