Dissolve It or Resolve It: An Exploration into ‘When’ and ‘Why’ Divorce is Justified by the Unmarried Youth

ABSTRACT

  The present research delves into the divorce process and its justification through young Indian unmarried youth. Building on the results obtained from the pilot study, a vignette-based experiment was then conducted on 80 students (40 males, 40 females; Mage = 22.30). The experiment followed a between-subject design where each vignette presented a narrative of a deteriorating marriage, conveyed from a woman’s standpoint, followed by questions addressing the justification for divorce. Results showed a preference for divorce in cases of infidelity over incompatibility. The participants held the belief that instances of infidelity impacted the mental and physical well-being of females more profoundly than cases of incompatibility. It is noteworthy that both male and female participants supported divorce in a similar manner, highlighting the lack of substantial gender-based differences in this matter. Additionally, the presence of a child did not significantly affect divorce-related decisions, suggesting that having a child did not salvage failing marriages.

KEYWORDS:

• Divorce
• Infidelity
• Incompatibility
• Vignette experiment
• Indian unmarried adults

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10502556.2023.2293392

Additional information

Funding

The paper is financially supported by the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research, India to Dr. Saurabh Maheshwari (Grant No. 02/336/2016-17/RP).