Lived experience of women having emotional relationships with the opposite sex before marriage.

Introduction: One of the most important human relationships is marriage, which due to the extensive changes in the world society as well as in Iran, today the relationship with the opposite sex is considered one of the most challenging relationships. The purpose of the present research was to discover the lived experience of married women who had an emotional relationship with the opposite sex before marriage. Methods: This research was qualitative and phenomenological. The statistical population of the research was all married women of Isfahan city with an age range of 18 to 30 years. The research data reached saturation with 15 people. The content of the interviewees' statements was coded with the help of Maxqda 2020 software. Results: The findings of the research included 3 main themes, 8 sub-themes and 22 codes of effective factors in entering relationships based on relationship-based experiences after the relationship. The main categories included social and interpersonal contexts, individual factors, family contexts, reasons for continuing the relationship, reasons for ending the relationship, reaction to ending the relationship, quality of married life, and gaining experience and intellectual maturity. Conclusion: The results of this research can be used by psychologists and counselors in the field of family and pre-marriage, teachers and educational coaches and all people who work in the field of marriage and family and youth.