EMOTIONAL AND PSYCHOSOCIAL IMPACT OF DIVORCE ON WOMEN IN MALDIVEs
Introduction
Most couples enter into marriage with the purpose of spending the rest of lives together. However, divorce is common phenomenon that is spreading at an alarming rate. The Maldives, with a population of approximately 400,000 has set the record of having the highest rate of divorce in the world. According to a study conducted by United Nations in 2016, an average local 30-year-old in Maldives has already been married and divorced three times and is ready for the fourth. In 2014, census statistics showed there were 10.97 divorces per 1,000 people in the Maldives per year. The number was so high it earned a Guinness World Record.
A couple going through a divorce suffer various physical and emotional side effects throughout the experience. Various studies have shown that women are more likely to be affected more than men. Its impacts are felt psychologically, physically, socially and economically (Murray, 2012). Having the above mentioned facts as a background, this study is intended to see both psychological and emotional impacts of divorce on women in Maldives. The reason why this topic was chosen for the research is because in Maldives, divorce is assumed to be a very ordinary thing as a result, its effects are not dealt with seriously, causing various mental health issues in women and their children as well. However, there are multiple factors that causes these mental health issues, unsure about what exact factors contribute to it other than the divorce. Likewise, every divorce is a different experience to each one. Everyone’s stories, their emotions and how they cope up with the situation is different. Furthermore, numbers cannot show in-depth perspective of women’s feelings that are caused as a result of divorce (Murray, 2012). Which is why doing a qualitative study would be the best for the proposed research since the effects of divorce requires to be explained in in-depth manner and understood in detail.
Literature review
Divorce has become a major issue in Maldives and the rates have been rising at an alarming rate. There are various interconnecting factors contributing for this rapid increase in divorce rate in Maldives. Zafar and Kausar (2014) examined the emotional and social problems in divorced and married women. The study showed that divorced women experienced more depression, anxiety as compared to married women. Results also showed that divorced women had more anger issues than married women.
Sharma (2011) conducted a research on mental and emotional impact of divorce on women in Gujarat, India. For this research 50 divorced women of 20-30 and 50 divorced women of 31-50 were taken. The results found that younger women are far better able to deal with divorce, however, older women feel more depressed and guilty after taking a divorce. She also found that the effect of divorce on women has mental and emotional implications that shatter their self-esteem. This result is similar to a cross-sectional study conducted in Baghdad in 2016 by Kareem and Qahtan. It showed that most if the divorced women were in psychological distress and angry because their husbands left them.
A research conducted by O.D Moldovan (2013), showed that divorced women has a lower self-esteem than married women. The reason for this as per Moldovan was that the fact that husbands leaving the women made them believe that they are not good enough and have some fault in them , leading to low self- esteem. He also recommended psychotherapy programs for these women post the divorce and counseling to teach them coping strategies. In addition, numerous studies have shown that divorced women are more likely to be stressed. There were many studies that evaluated the role and importance of the cognitive and behavioral techniques in reducing components of mental health (Hasanvandi, 2013). Which is why, stress management programs need to be conducted on these women which will help them cope with the stress. A study conducted by Hasanvandi and Valizade in 2013 showed positive effectiveness of stress management programs on divorce women.
SAMPLE
The study will be focused on divorce women by limiting the sample only to those women who were left by their husbands and exclude those who voluntarily asked for divorce or got divorced on mutual consent. The participants for the study will be 10 divorced women in the age group of 20-35 years, divorced during 2010 to 2015. The reason why year is so specific is to ensure that the divorce is not too recent also not too long ago. If it is too recent, the questions in the interview could make them feel worse and more negative about themselves, as a result their level of stress might increase. Similarly, if the divorce is too long ago, the participants might not remember the experience and details clearly, as a result might not be able to give me the necessary information for the research. In addition, numerous amount of researches show that older women have more mental health issues than younger women therefor the age group is limited till 35 years old.
Research Questions
1: What are the negative psychological and emotional impacts of divorce on women in Maldives?
2: Did the divorce benefit the women in any way?
Methodology
According to Creswell (2007), there are different principles in choosing research approaches based on three factors which include the research problem, the researcher’s personal experiences and the people for whom the research will be written. When designing this research, qualitative approach will be employed as the impact of divorce needs to be explained in an in-depth manner and understood in detail. The participants will be recruited on convenient sampling method as the sample population is too large that it is impossible to include every divorced woman and also it is believed if any other sampling method is used, most people will not be willing to take part in the study.
Procedure
Data for this research will be collected during mid-2018. One participant will be interviewed each day. The questions will be semi-structured with the belief that the responses would vary in terms of their backgrounds and experiences. During the interview, any impression such as emotional reactions, body language will be noted down as this could be of used later in the research. The questions asked in the interview will be broad and open-ended. When designing the questions, it will be made sure that the questions does not hold too much of negativity and include questions about the quality of life before the divorce as well. All the interviews will be conducted in local Dhivehi language and the results will be translated to English for the purpose of data analysis. The interviews will take place at a public, yet controlled place where there could be minimum interruptions and before starting the interview, participants will be briefed about the objective of the study and consent forms will be given to sign.
DATA ANALYSIS
According to Brink (as cited in Murray, 2012), data are analyzed to categorize, manipulate, summarize and to give order to describe in meaningful terms (Murray, 2012). Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) will be used for data analysis. To begin with, all the gathered data will be read carefully to gain an overall idea about the whole text. Next, all the data will be arranged and given codes to every section of the text. Later, the codes will be grouped to identify themes. Having done this, various themes will be selected based on the data at hand under psychological, emotional and social.
ETICAL CONSIDERATION
In conducting any research, it is the responsibility of every researcher to conduct his/her study responsibly to maintain high scientific research standards in the methodology part by ensuring the validity of the research (Berk, n.d.). In the process of the study, all the necessary measures will be taken in order to ensure ethical guidelines in handling the research settings and participants. All the participants will be informed about the objective of the study and consent form will be signed by the participants. Moreover, the confidentiality of the participants will be maintained by keeping anonymity. Also, the data collected will be kept in a locked place out of reach of anyone else other than the researcher. Lastly, empathetic and nonjudgmental approach will be obtained to gain the full corporation of the participants and to make them more comfortable.
EXPECTED RESULTS
The results expected from this research is that divorced women are more likely to be experiencing negative psychological impacts such as depression, regret, anger, guilt and hatred. In addition, divorced women will also face negative economic and social issues such financial problems. However, it is important to note that psychological challenges post the divorce will not be same for all the individuals. In spite of the distressing moments, the divorced women also learn to be more independent and strong, enabling them to experience the positive side of a divorce.
DISCUSSION
The overall negative effects of divorce outweigh the positive effects of divorce on the women who have passed through the process of divorce in Maldives. Therefore, the women who go through the divorce should be given conseling therapy and taught coping strategies which might minimize the negative psychological effects they face.
References
Berk, L. Child development (1st ed.).
. Retrieved 23 November 2017, from http://jiaap.org/listing_detail/logo/5fd3f8b2-9fb6-4934-9c1f-0ab50f31ea09.pdf
(2017). Retrieved 23 November 2017, from http://etd.aau.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/7346/1/12.Wubedel%20Dereje.pdf
A Quantitative Study of the Role of Divorce and Remarriage on Female African American Millennials' Perceptions of Marriage – ProQuest. (2017). Search.proquest.com. Retrieved 23 November 2017, from https://search.proquest.com/openview/c8a591cd939ffab62fcbc81d88094657/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
The highest divorce rate in the world. (2017). @trvl. Retrieved 23 November 2017, from https://trvl.com/maldives/maldives
http://sbbwu.edu.pk/journal/FWU_Journal_Summer2014,Vol.8,No.1/5_Emotional_and_Social_Problems_in_Divorced.pdf
http://jiaap.org/listing_detail/logo/5fd3f8b2-9fb6-4934-9c1f-0ab50f31ea09.pdf
https://ac.els-cdn.com/S1877042813018624/1-s2.0-S1877042813018624-main.pdf?_tid=fd72c2a8-d6a5-11e7-9654-00000aab0f27&acdnat=1512139586_a8f781f08edf342c9e70839dbff1f234