Unpacking occupational participation in the context of romantic partnerships: A scoping review

Romantic partnerships are characterized by deeply emotional and physical bonds often manifested through shared occupations. The concept of co-occupation highlights the interdependent and collaborative nature of such occupations. However, the question remains as to how co-occupation can be understood within the context of a romantic partnership. The objective of this scoping review was to identify and summarize how co-occupation involving romantic partners has been described within occupational science and occupational therapy literature. A five-step scoping review framework identified relevant primary research from three databases: CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Pubmed. Studies had to include romantic partners, aged 18 years and older, and describe the occupational participation of both partners. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify and synthesize themes emerging from the findings and discussion sections across the studies. The search yielded 229 studies from databases and 3 from citation searching. Twenty met the inclusion criteria. Most studies involved heterosexual partners living in Western countries. The identified themes were: 1) ‘Doing together’: joint participation in co-occupations; 2) ‘Doing for each other’: singular participation in co-occupations; and 3) ‘Doing as one’: Navigating illness as reflected in co-occupations. While the findings are limited to heterosexual relationships and English language literature, this review highlights how partners can experience shared meaning, intentionality, and physicality through their co-occupations. Further research is needed to explore how a sense of ‘we-ness’ can emerge from such occupational participation.