What were some of the rewards and challenges of early marriage?

MARRIAGE/RELATIONSHIP INTERVIEW WITH A VOLUNTEER COUPLE

This is one of the options you may choose to complete the project requirement of the course.

For this assignment, you will interview a couple who is willing to speak with you about their marriage with the goal of understanding more about their marriage and reflecting on potential takeaways for your own life. The questions, below, are intended to provide guidelines for your interview. You do not need to ask them all: feel free to focus on what is of most interest to you, to leave out ones that for whatever reason don’t feel right or appropriate to ask, and to take the interview in other directions as well.

You may choose any couple who you feel comfortable asking and who feels comfortable speaking with you about their marriage or long-term relationship – someone in your extended family, family friends, or religious community. There are different ways to structure the interview. You may interview the couple together or separately.

After completion of the interview, write a paper 5-6 pages (double-spaced) in length (pages are approximate; if you need more space to adequately cover the topic, you may go a bit over) which includes:

The “story” of your interviewees’ marriage.
Things they feel would be helpful for a young person to know as they think about own future relationships.
Your reflections on takeaways for your own life.

GUIDELINES FOR INTERVIEW

BEGINNING OF RELATIONSHIP

I’m interested in learning more about your marriage. How old was each of you when you met?
What was your life situation at the time (in school, working at which job, etc.)?
What is the story of how you met?
What attracted you to each other?
How long were you together before you married?
How was the wedding? (This can be more complicated a question for, e.g., same sex couples who may not have options to marry. In that case, what was that like?)
What influences did the families you came from have on the relationship?
PHASES AND CHANGES

What were some of the rewards and challenges of early marriage? How did you come to approach conflict, settle differences and make decisions?
How did the relationship change when children entered the picture?
How was the balance between work and family?
Looking back, do you see different phases or changes in the relationship?
Did the differences in the families you came from affect the relationships?
Did ongoing relationships with other family members support or stress the relationship?
ADVICE FOR ME

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