Adjustment to divorce: a preliminary study among Muslim Arab citizens of Israel

Adjustment to divorce in a sample of 312 Muslim Arab citizens of Israel was associated both with variables that have been shown to affect adjustment to divorce in Western societies and with variables specific to the culture of the study. The former included male gender, education, current employment, fewer accompanying stressors, and greater satisfaction with the divorce process. The latter were the respondents' self-defined modernity (as opposed to traditionalism) and their disinclination to perceive divorced persons as bad parents and spouses and as socially deviant, in accord with the social stereotype of their community.

Consequences of divorce on the adjustment of children in China

Explored the consequences of divorce on children in China. In contrast to Western countries, divorce in China is relatively rare, occurring in approximately 10% to 15% of the population. Children from divorced families (n = 174) and matched intact families (n = 174) were selected from a larger sample of 1,294 children between 8 and 14 years of age. Divorce was relatively low in this sample (13.45%) of participants, consistent with rates observed in epidemiological studies in China. Mothers of divorced children reported higher levels of education but lower levels of income than mothers in intact families. Children in divorced families reported higher levels of anxiety and depression, and their mothers and teachers rated them as possessing more behavior problems on the Achenbach (1991) Child Behavior Checklist scales. Regression analyses revealed that rejecting and inattentive parenting styles, along with family status (divorce or intact), high maternal depression, and sex (boys) predicted significant amounts of variance associated with these negative outcomes. Results are discussed in terms of familial and cultural issues associated with these findings.

American Muslim women's experiences of leaving abusive relationships

American Muslim women are a growing population whose experiences of abuse remain largely unstudied. To begin to amend this gap in knowledge, this article examines American Muslim women's experiences of leaving abusive partners as reported in a larger narrative study. The process of leaving as described by participants includes four stages: reaching the point of saturation, getting khula (an Islamic divorce initiated by wives), facing fimily and/or community disapproval, and reclaiming the self. Each of these stages illustrates the significance of group-oriented cultural values in shaping participants' experiences of leaving their abusers. I compare study findings with existing literature and conclude by offering suggestions for research and practice in this area.

Educational attainment of the children of divorce: Australia, 1940-90

Much research suggests that the disruption of marriage through parental death or divorce imposes a small but significant educational disadvantage on American children, although the most recent and comprehensive analysis casts serious doubt on this claim. What is the situation in Australia? Using representative national samples (n= 29,443) and OLS and logistic regression with robust standard errors, we estimate models controlling many potentially confounding variables. We find that divorce in Australia costs seven-tenths of a year of education, mainly by reducing secondary school completion. Importantly, divorce has become more damaging in recent cohorts.

Divorce and the elite household in late medieval Cairo

This article examines the rate and causes of divorce among the elite households of late fifteenth-century Cairo. By using a unique contemporary chronicle, it is possible to estimate that a third of all marriages ended in divorce. Wives initiated divorces at least as often as their husbands. They did so by reaching a divorce settlement with their husbands for a financial compensation, or, in the case of desertion, by using the courts to impose a judicial divorce. In the vast majority of the cases, the causes for the divorce were grounded in marital relations. In spite of the importance of marriage alliances for the elite household, these marriages did eventually hinge on the mutual consent of the two individuals concerned.

"Many divorces and many spinsters": marriage as an invented tradition in southern Malawi 1946-1999

In the author’s 1999 interviews, elders in a district of southern Malawi insisted that the marriages of their children and grandchildren are a weakened and degenerate form of the marriages of their own youth. However, data from the 1940s shows that identical beliefs about marriage were held even then. Marriage is thus constantly presented as an institution in crisis, deteriorating from an Arcadian form located in the ever-receding past. The author uses an expansion of the notion of invented tradition to describe this historically consistent rhetorical presentation of marriage and suggests questions that this invented tradition presents for family historians.

Divorce and remarriage in Austria-Hungary: the second marriage of Franz Conrad von Hotzendorf

In October 1915, in the middle of World War I, the chief of staff of the Royal and Imperial Army, Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, consulted the authorities on a private matter. While “the fatherland was fighting a bloody battle for its very existence, and the army and people were turning to their generals full of alarm,” the general was contemplating marriage. However, Austrian marriage laws stood in the way of his plans. Virginia (Gina) Agujari, Conrad's “chosen one,” had since 1896 been in a Catholic marriage with the industrialist Hans von Reininghaus.

Law and love: the Jewish family in early modern Italy

In legal texts, women, acting on their own volition, are actually described as individuals in negative terms. This study examines clandestine betrothals and marriages; adultery, especially the treatment of adulterous women; the abused wife and her ability to initiate divorce proceedings against her husband; and testaments left with Christian notaries by Jewish women.

While they were limited by various laws and customs, individuals managed to use laws and social structures for their own advantage, negotiated space for themselves, and devised strategies to fulfil their wishes, which could be described as the pursuit of love, by circumventing obstacles placed in their way by communities, families, and the law. These practices raise questions about familial control, rabbinic authority, and communal power.

Adjustment to violent and natural deaths in later and earlier life for black and white widows

OBJECTIVES

This study explored the role of mode and unexpectedness of death, age, race, and marital status on psychological symptoms for widows approximately 6 months after their husbands' deaths.

METHODS

Midwestern samples were drawn from death/divorce records for 276 Black and White women aged 19-74 whose husbands had died from homicide, suicide, or accidental death; 276 matched natural death widows; 188 separated/divorced women.

RESULTS

Mode of death was not related to psychological symptoms. Contrary to expectation, widows of the men who had died from long-term natural illnesses exhibited more distress than widows of men who had died from violent and sudden, natural deaths combined. Indicative of their heightened overall symptoms, widows were more distressed than divorced women. Middle-aged and younger widows were more distressed than older ones. White widows reported more symptoms than Blacks in violent but not natural deaths. Black widows whose spouses had died from suicide had higher psychological distress on some indicators, supporting the greater stigma of suicide among Black persons.

DISCUSSION

Results of smaller studies on the minimal role of mode of death in bereavement are supported, but more research on age, race, and "off-time" deaths in short- and long-term adjustment is needed.

Divorce in Ethiopia: the impact of early marriage and childlessness

Forty-five per cent of first marriages in Ethiopia end in divorce within 30 years, and two-thirds of women who divorce do so within the first 5 years of marriage. This paper looks at two factors that may have an impact on the risk of divorce in Ethiopia: early age of first marriage, and childlessness within the first marriage. Data used were from the 1990 National Family and Fertility Survey conducted by the Government of Ethiopia. A total of 8757 women of reproductive age (15-49) were analysed. Life table analysis was used to determine the median age at first marriage, first birth and the median duration of marriage. Cox models were analysed to determine the differentials of divorce. The results of this analysis showed that both early age at marriage and childlessness have a significant impact on the risk of divorce. An inverse relationship was found between age at marriage and risk of divorce. Having a child within the first marriage also significantly reduced the risk of divorce. In addition, several cultural and socioeconomic variables were significant predictors of divorce.