This is what life is all about": Romantic couples’ meaning-making of death. A pilot study with Italian couples before the Covid-19 pandemic

According to the humanistic-existential perspective, people develop and attribute meanings to death that impact their life purpose (Wong et al., 1994). The romantic experience represents a particular case of the meaning-making process in which partners negotiate meanings and co-construct a dyadic reality (Molina et al., 2018). Experimental quantitative research acknowledged that romantic relationships have an existential function: individuals seek romantic close others to cope with the anxiety triggered by death reminders (Mikulicer et al., 2003). Concurrently, little is known about couples’ meaning-making of death. This pilot qualitative study explored death-related meanings within romantic couples. Conjoint semi-structured interviews were conducted with 4 Italian heterosexual middle-aged and married couples in February 2019, before the Covid-19 outbreak. Thematic analysis was performed (Braun & Clarke, 2006) supported by the software ATLAS.ti. Three main themes were identified: partners’ sharing attitudes towards death; partners’ intimacy in loss(es) contexts; partners’ dyadic views of life. This study highlights insights for clinical work with couples facing mortality-salient and existentially challenging situations.