Dagmar Nared, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
published in the Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Love and Relationship Studies, 6-8 March, 2026
You can see the full video recording of this presentation at the YouTube channel of the International Institute of Love Studies
Introduction
Studies have examined how intimate relationships change after natural disasters, showing mixed findings about their effects on relationship qualities. While some studies report increased divorce rates (Cohan & Cole, 2002), others show that newlywed couples experienced a temporary rise in relationship satisfaction followed by decline (Williamson et al., 2021). Studies of how the COVID-19 pandemic, as a prolonged disastrous human crisis, shaped emotional and relational life have not found clear evidence on how this life crisis affected relationships and intimacy (Estlein et al., 2022).
Research on post-catastrophe intimacy remains an important area of study, yet existing work largely focuses on established couples. Less attention has been paid to young people who are dating and in the process of building their lives, for whom intimacy is negotiated under conditions of uncertainty, low commitment, and heightened social and emotional risk. My research is based on ethnographic fieldwork and explores how young single people in Hatay, Turkey, experience love and dating in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that struck the region nearly three years ago, leaving profound economic, political, and emotional ruptures and producing forms of collective trauma.
This study examines young people’s everyday practices, interactions, and emotional lives through the lens of intimacy, dating, and love. By focusing on youth navigating emerging relationships in a traumatized and severely damaged area, the research contributes to anthropological debates on love in time of adversity by showing how emotions and relational life are reworked in the wake of natural catastrophe.
The research questions I address in this study are: (1) How does love reshape itself when social and political life is transformed overnight by disaster? (2) And how do young people respond to these transformations?
The aim of this study is to examine how young people negotiate love, intimacy, and dating in the aftermath of disaster, and how broader conditions of uncertainty, trauma, and socio-economic instability shape emerging relationships.
Methodology and Methods
This study follows an ethnographic methodology to examine love as it is lived and practiced by young people in post-earthquake Hatay, more than two years after the catastrophe reshaped the region. I conducted fieldwork over nine months between 2024 and 2025 in Hatay, the region of southern Turkey. The study involved prolonged engagement in everyday social settings of residents living in that area. Through participant observation, the research observed young people who were dating or attempting to date, many of whom shared their experiences of intimacy, uncertainty, and relational aspiration over the course of the fieldwork.
In addition to involved observation of people life, the study draws on 40 semi-structured interviews with young women and men focusing on dating practices, experiences of the earthquake, and shifting gender norms. To situate these experiences within broader social and moral frameworks, further interviews were conducted with community and religious leaders, parents, and mental health professionals working in the region. Visual anthropological methods were also employed to document everyday practices, emotional experiences, and social interactions, offering a way to capture both an area in ongoing reconstruction and the intimate lives unfolding within it.
Highlights of Results
Based on ethnographic fieldwork and 40 semi-structured interviews, the study found that single young people in post-earthquake Hatay experience heightened levels of distrust toward others, particularly in relation to forming new romantic relationships. Many participants expressed uncertainty about the mental well-being and intentions of potential partners, often framing dating as emotionally risky in the aftermath of the earthquake.
While flirting and dating continue, they do so under constrained conditions: the destruction of urban infrastructure, including nightclubs and bars where young people previously met, has significantly reduced social spaces for encounter. At the same time, housing shortages and economic precarity have led many young people to move back in with their parents, intensifying social surveillance and reinforcing gendered norms around courtship.
Young women, in particular, navigate stricter moral expectations that shape how they approach intimacy and attachment, while young men report difficulty meeting societal expectations of providing a stable future for their future wife amid the region’s economic collapse. Despite these constraints, young people develop creative strategies to form interpersonal connections, including online communication and small private gatherings.
Overall, the findings reveal a tension between the desire for intimacy and the fear of vulnerability, showing how love practices adapt to new circumstances under crisis.
Discussion and Conclusions
These findings of the study show that love and relationships among youth in post-earthquake Hatay are closely shaped by social, economic, and political disruptions, alongside gendered norms. Experience of distrustful intimacy acts as both a protective mechanism and a barrier to forming interpersonal connections, intensified by limited social spaces, social surveillance, as young people move back with their families, and political turmoil in Turkey. The study underscores the need to consider social constraints, gender dynamics and political instability when examining love and emotional life among young people. Above all, it demonstrates the importance of studying love in the context of natural catastrophes academically.
References
Cohan, C. L., & Cole, S. W. (2002). Life course transitions and natural disaster: marriage, birth, and divorce following Hurricane Hugo. Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43), 16(1), 14–25. https://doi.org/10.1037//0893-3200.16.1.14
Williamson H. C. (2020). Early Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Relationship Satisfaction and Attributions. Psychological science, 31(12), 1479–1487. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620972688
Estlein, R., Gewirtz-Meydan A., & Opuda E. (2022). Love in the time of COVID-19: A systematic mapping review of empirical research on romantic relationships one year into the COVID-19 pandemic. Family Process, 61, 1208–1228. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12775
Key words: post-earthquake Türkiye, youth intimacy, distrustful intimacy, natural catastrophe, gender norms