Study of family pattern changes with emphasis on the role of social networks: Qualitative research

Abstract

The family is one of the influential social institutions in different societies that has undergone extensive changes in recent decades. Researchers and experts in the fields of humanities and social sciences consider various factors such as the development of urbanization, the development of universities and the promotion of the scientific level of citizens and the development of mass and social media to be effective in these changes. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to understand and discover new concepts formed in the family institution with regard to the key role of social media. What macro and micro categories have social media introduced into the family institution and how has the approach of family members changed?
Method: This research is a qualitative approach and grounded theory. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 men and women to collect data. Open, axial and selective coding was used to analyze the data.
Results: The results of the data coding process showed that out of 131 concepts, 9 micro categories and 3 major categories were constructed and finally the central category of family networking was extracted. According to the participants in the study, in the years before the 1990s, the categories of monopoly interaction, patriarchal domination, and the dominance of religious and traditional values created the conditions for determining tradition, but the "emergence of a new age" and "mobile lifestyle" It has led to "structural and functional modernization of the family" which, with the influential conditions of the categories of "transfer of power", "provision of new opportunities", "value transformation" and "structural transformation in the family" towards "individualization of the family institution" has turned.