Authors: Abdul Karim Atiq & Nesreen Bsharat
The study aimed to explore the conflict of social roles and its impact on the relationship between couples and the ways to overcome it from the perspective of general social work practice in Nablus Governorate. The study approached the literature as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, which addressed both theoretical and applied research. The significance of this recent study is the first, which dealt with this theme, to the authors knowledge, which addressed the social role conflict, that represents an important element in the success or failure of families and the relationship between spouses, in light of the many contemporary challenges that have obliged both women and men to perform many roles in term of the requirements of contemporary life, in the Palestinian occupied society.
To achieve this end, the study adopted the descriptive qualitative research approach using the case study method. The in-depth interview is appropriate for the exploratory nature of the research. A 12-item in-depth interview was formulated which was divided into five sub-scales as follows: the general information of the participants; the second section dealt with the emotional roles conflict; the third section included the economical roles conflict; and the fourth had the social roles conflict; while the fifth including the couples’ suggestions to reduce the roles conflict.
The case study method was utilized which comprised of (20) couples at Nablus Governorate. The collected data was analyzed using the content analysis method, and calculating the descriptive statistics, that are, the frequencies, and means.
The study findings revealed that the majority of the participants experienced roles conflict in their families, that are, family care, the economic role associated with the daily expenses, the emotional role, and the social roles towards parents. The study also revealed that the role as father or mother had a positive impact on the relationship between spouses from an emotional, economic, and social perspective; and role as husband or wife positively impacts the marital relationship from an emotional, economic, and social perspective. However, the study indicated that the role as a worker couples negatively impacts the marital relationship from an emotional perspective, while positively impacts the marital relationship from an economic and social perspective.
These findings confirmed the value of roles conflict which negatively impact the relationship between couples in the Palestinian family in general, and that of Nablus Governorate in particular, which causes physical and psychological stress, reduces the time spent together, and diminishes the couple's ability to communicate, and recommends some mechanisms to overcome it from the perspective of the general practice of social work, that are, allocating sufficient time for couples away from responsibilities, dividing roles fairly to ensure the reduction of stress on each partner, and further research is essential in the area of roles conflict in the Palestinian family using the quantitative research design.
Keywords: Roles conflict, social, economic, emotional, couples, social work practice, Palestine.
Atiq, Abdul Karim. Assistant Professor of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Al-Quds Open University, Ramallah, Palestine. Email:
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Nesreen Bsharat, MA. Social Worker, Faculty of Social Sciences, Al-Quds Open University, Ramallah, Palestine. Independent Researcher, Nablus, Palestine. Email:
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