Abstract
Divorce is the termination of relationships between married couples. Divorce could be decided through a court litigation or mediation. Several factors have been shown to lead to increased rates of divorce in the society. This paper introduces the divorce topic by discussing the types, causes, and impacts of divorce. It presents three models for assessing whether the independent variables lead to lower rates of divorce among rich couples.
The paper discusses the anticipated data and how it would be collected and quantified for statistical analysis. Finally, the paper discusses the significance of the anticipated findings and offers a conclusion based on the research question.
Introduction
Divorce refers to the termination of a union between the married couple. It involves ending all legal marital obligations. In many countries, divorce cases are sanctioned by courts through legal processes. However, the Philippines and the Vatican City are the only countries that do not allow divorce.
Divorce has been proven to be a stressful event that has influence on finances, lifestyles, and schedules of both people. The proposed study aims to answer the following research question:
Do financial stability, faithfulness, and sexual satisfaction contribute to lower divorce rates among rich couples?
Divorce cases among young and old married couples have been on the increase around the world in the recent decades. Several factors have been cited to cause the increase in divorce rates. It would be essential to understand the various aspects of divorce cases among couples so that measures could be implemented to help save marriages in the future.
Literature review
There are many types of divorce across the world as stipulated by national laws. Contested divorce cases are taken to courts so that a judge can decide on the disputed issues. A divorce case is taken to court if a couple is not able to agree on some issues like child uptake and property sharing. Such cases take long periods of time to be concluded by judges, and the couple has to pay for legal representation in courts.
Once a verdict is given, a partner can feel dissatisfied and file an appeal. An appeal could be rejected or upheld based on the legal evidence produced in court. At-fault divorce requires one partner to allege that his or her partner has committed an act that is not acceptable in marriage. The acts committed by the partner could be unfaithfulness, abandonment and/or cruelty.
No-fault divorce does not require a partner to prove that his or her partner has committed one of such acts. Spouses could decide to part ways because they felt that their union could not work any longer. Still, a judge can consider factors like past violence and marital irresponsibility issues when deciding on division of property and children’s upkeep.
A summary divorce requires spouses to fulfil some legal requirements before they can be allowed to end their union. The legal requirements can be short marriages as defined by the law, minimal real property, and absence of children, among others. Uncontested divorce is the termination of marriage whereby both spouses agree on children’s upkeep, division of property and support issues without the use of mediators or lawyers.
A collaborative divorce is a termination of marriage whereby spouses are helped to reach a resolution with the assistance of attorneys. A mediated divorce is a termination of marriage which involves the use of mediators to facilitate sharing of marital property and children’s upkeep.
A mediated divorce is cheaper than a divorce which is taken to a court for litigation. Mediators can be financial analysts and counsellors who work to help a couple to understand and accept divorce issues.
Polygamous marriages have been shown to have more cases of divorce than monogamous marriages (Brinig & Nock, 2009; Kitson & Holmes, 1992). Divorce in a polygamous marriage can be facilitated by financial constraints, childlessness, and sexual dissatisfaction.
Unfaithfulness among spouses is a major cause of divorce in marriages. Unfaithfulness cases have been on the increase across the world due to many socio-economic factors (Lefkowitz & Fant, 2005).
Research shows that divorce can result in less conflict at home, which is a positive side. However, divorce causes financial instability if one partner loses financial support. Parental skills have been shown to minimize following divorce. However, the skills increase about 2 years after the divorce.
Children are the main losers in the event that their parents divorce. If parents divorce, their children tend to have unhappy, dissatisfied, and depressed time. Such children lack parental love which is essential in the upbringing of socially healthy personalities.
Children whose parents separate have been shown to have lower academic performance than children whose parents have not divorced. This could be attributed to the guidance that the children get from their parents in intact families (Smart, Neale & Wade, 2001).
Divorce among the elderly has been on the increase due to the improvement in longevity and economics. For example, many women are becoming financially independent. As a result, more financially able women are divorcing their husbands (Amato, 2010; Wickelgren, 2009).
Methods
Model 1: It would hypothesize that there is no relationship between lower rates of divorce and faithfulness among rich couples. The model would also hypothesize that faithfulness is not a contributing factor to divorce in marriages.
The model would start by defining the problem, divorce, among rich couples. It would collect data to test whether the assumptions are supported. If they are not supported, the model would go back to the first process of defining the problem and testing the hypotheses again (iterative process).
Model 2: The model would hypothesize that there is no correlation between lower divorce rates among rich couples and financial stability. The other hypothesis would assume that finances do not play a significant role in promoting longevity of marriages among rich couples.
The model would define the problem and then collect qualitative data to test the hypotheses. The processes in the model would be iterative to assess whether the hypotheses would be supported by the data when the modelling processes are repeated.
Model 3: It would hypothesize that there is no relationship between lower divorce rates and sexual satisfaction among rich couples. It would also hypothesize that sexual satisfaction is not a major factor that contributes to divorce.
The model would aim to collect data on sexual satisfaction among rich couples and compare them to divorce rates. If the hypotheses are not supported by the data analyzed, then the iterative process of modelling would be repeated to assess whether the hypotheses are supported.
Data
The proposed study will collect qualitative data for the variables contained in the research question. The independent variables will be the factors that lead to divorce which are faithfulness, sexual satisfaction and financial stability, while the dependent variable will be the rates of divorce. Sexual satisfaction could be a factor that makes couples stay together in marriage.
In case spouses are not satisfied sexually, then they could opt to terminate their marriage. Financial problems bring stress in families leading to divorce. On the other hand, it could be that financial stability in rich couple marriages contributes to lower divorce rates.
Unfaithfulness by a partner in a marriage can cause the other partner to initiate divorce. However, spouses could stay happily married if neither spouse is engaged in marital unfaithfulness acts. The qualitative data will be collected in the form of words and statements and coded so that it could be changed to quantitative data for statistical analysis. Questionnaires and personal interviews will be used to collect the data.
Results and findings
All the assumptions in the models are null hypotheses. For the hypotheses to be supported, the analyzed data should show that the independent variables are not significantly correlated with the dependent variable. If the data do not support the formulated null hypotheses, then they would support alternative hypotheses which are stated in the affirmative.
Conclusion
If the null hypotheses in the models will not be supported by the analyzed data, then it will be concluded that the independent variables contribute to lower rates of divorce among rich couples.
On the other hand, if the null hypotheses are supported then it will be concluded that the causative factors (the independent variables) do not lead to lower divorce rates among rich couples. The two conclusions would be based on the research question formulated in the study.
References
Amato, P. R. (2010). Research on divorce: Continuing trends and new developments. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72(3), 650-666.
Brinig, M. F., & Nock, S. L. (2009). One-Size-Fits-All Family, The. Santa Clara L. Rev., 49(1), 137.
Kitson, G. C., & Holmes, W. M. (1992). Portrait of divorce: Adjustment to marital breakdown. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Lefkowitz, M. R., & Fant, M. B. (Eds.). (2005). Women’s life in Greece and Rome: a source book in translation. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Smart, C., Neale, B., & Wade, A. (2001). The changing experience of childhood: Families and divorce. Cambridge, England: Polity.
Wickelgren, A. L. (2009). Why divorce laws matter: Incentives for noncontractible marital investments under unilateral and consent divorce. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 25(1), 80-106.