Reasons for seeking a divorce in Iran

Introduction

Divorce today is no longer considered merely a personal problem but a complex process that requires attention because of its effects on couples and their children and its consequences for an entire society and economy (Leopold, 2018). It is a multidimensional issue that must be prevented or regulated on the basis of various perspectives, the opinions of experts, and the viewpoints of divorce seekers (Amato & Previti, 2003; Gravningen et al., 2017).

Etiological studies on divorce have taken into account the perspectives of experts in most cases, but these investigations devoted less attention to subjective accounts of divorce among those on the verge of dissolving their marriage or have already dissolved such union (Lampard, 2013). Looking into divorce factors from a subjective point of view presents value as it can complement objective methods and correspondingly “provide a richer understanding of the divorce process” (Amato & Previti, 2003).

Using the opinions of divorce seekers has been extensively adopted in research on divorce in Western countries (Gravningen et al., 2017; Lowenstein, 2005), but little information is available from Islamic countries.

In Iran, the number of divorces per 1,000 marriages has increased from 90 cases in 2000 (Aghajanian & Thompson, 2013) to 287 in 2018. This divorce rate has correspondingly ranked the country among high-divorce nations, even surpassing some Western countries (Aghajanian & Thompson, 2013). Recent decades have also seen Iran undergo profound and rapid social changes, particularly its transition from a traditional and developing society into a modern civilization. For example, the number of students enrolled in tertiary education has more than doubled over the last 20 years and the urban population increased from 30% to 75% over past few decades (Danaei et al., 2019). This move toward modernity, as well as the shift from collectivism to individualism, has played a role in increasing the occurrence of divorce in Iran (Aghajanian & Thompson, 2013). A qualitative study among Iranian women found that insufficient communication skills was one of the most important factors leading to divorce (Zandiyeh & Yousefi, 2014). Our research question was “What are the top reasons Iranian people apply for a divorce?” As a whole, this study was aimed at evaluating the perceived reasons that Iranian men and women have for seeking a divorce.

Method

This nationwide study was conducted in nine capital cities chosen from 31 provinces in Iran. The provinces were initially divided into three tertiles on the basis of the divorce-to-marriage ratio in the areas, after which three provinces were randomly selected from each tertile. Subsequently, the number of prospective participants to be recruited from each province was determined in proportion to the size of the target population. The sampling framework also included individuals who had appeared in family court and then had been referred for counseling to the family intervention centers intended to reduce divorce. The final sample consisted of 1,600 consecutive couples, to whom the purpose of the study was explained. Upon the respondents’ expression of their willingness to participate and signing of consent forms, the men and women were asked to complete questionnaires separately in private rooms with the presence of an expert interviewer (for illiterate respondents). The questionnaires were anonymized, stored, and deposited in a sealed box after completion. The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

Measurement tool

The Perceived Reasons for Divorce Seeking Questionnaire (PRDSQ) was used to evaluate what the participants believed to be the drivers of divorce seeking (Eslami et al., 2018). It was originally developed in Persian language for Iranian population, so there was no need to translate the questionnaire. This questionnaire contains 29 items concerning subjective reasons for a divorce and two subscales for rating expressive/relationship-centered factors and instrumental/external determinants. Confirmatory factor analysis was done to check factorial validity of the PRDSQ in this research. Twelve items were removed due to insufficient factor loadings. Items 3, 11, 7–9, and 19 are categorized under the expressive/relationship-centered dimension, whereas the rest are classified under the instrumental/external dimension (Figure S1 in the Supplementary file). The Cronbach’s α values of the two subscales were .79 and .82, respectively. The respondents were asked to rate the importance of each reason on a 5-point scale (0 = totally unimportant, 1 = unimportant, 2 = neutral, 3 = important, and 4 = totally important). For the sake of simplicity, we categorized responses to each items to two main categories by combining the totally unimportant/unimportant/neutral and important/totally important together. Mean score of each item was computed too (Table S1 in Supplementary Material). They were also asked about their age, gender, duration of marriage, educational level, and how they were acquainted with their spouses.

Statistical analysis

Mean and standard deviation (SD) values were used to describe the quantitative data, and percentages were employed to summarize the qualitative data. To compare the mean scores of the male and female respondents, an independent t test was conducted. Multiple group confirmatory factor analysis was done to demonstrate invariance across gender using AMOS version 20 software (IBM Corp.) package. A p-value of less than .05 was considered significant.

Results

Out of the 1,600 respondents, 94 were excluded because of incompletely filled questionnaires, leaving us with a final sample of 1,506 couples (response rate = 94%). The mean (±SD) ages of the women and men were 30.9 (±8.9) and 35.2 (±9.5) years, respectively. The other demographic characteristics of the participants are presented in Table 1.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of respondents (n = 1,506).

Characteristics	Mean		SD
Wife’s age (years)	30.9		8.9
Husband’s age (years)	35.2		9.5
Age difference (years)	4.3		5.5
Duration of marriage (years)	8.7		7.7
How spouses became acquainted with each other	Frequency		%
Introduction by family and friends	592		39.3
Parents’ recommendations	319		21.2
Acquaintance by oneself	501		33.3
Unknown	94		6.2
Educational level	Female	Male	Female	Male
Illiterate	15	88	1.0	5.8
Primary school	141	220	9.4	14.6
Secondary school	369	399	24.5	26.5
High school diploma	540	456	35.9	30.3
Academic degree	441	343	29.3	22.8

The mean scores of the men and women for the expressive/relationship-centered dimension were both higher than their scores for the instrumental/external dimension. In general, the mean scores of the women for both dimensions were higher than those of the men (Table 2).

OPEN IN VIEWER

Table 2.

Comparison of mean scores for both dimensions of the PRDSQ.

Subscale	Women	Men	Comparison of men and women
Expressive/relationship-centered	1.89 ± 0.96	1.57 ± 1.01	p < .001
Instrumental/external	1.48 ± 0.83	1.14 ± 0.83
Comparison of subscales	p < .001

PRDSQ = Perceived Reasons for Divorce Seeking Questionnaire.

Of the 17 reasons presented to the divorce seekers, three were regarded as the most critical in both genders: the inability to resolve conflicts, which led to disputes, dissatisfaction with the manner by which a spouse expressed love and emotions, and discontent regarding a spouse’s personality traits. The least important reasons reported by both groups of respondents were minimal age difference with a spouse and infertility (Table 3 and Table S1 in the Supplementary file). Comparison of mean scores of both dimensions of the PRDSQ* according to demographic characteristics are shown in supplementary file (Tables S2 and S3).

OPEN IN VIEWER

Table 3.

Number and percentage of individuals who considered certain reasons for divorce important (n = 1,506).

Number	Items	Female		Male
		n	%	n	%
1	My spouse’s addiction	489	32.5	221	14.7
2	My spouse’s suspicion and pessimism	644	42.8	491	32.6
3	Financial difficulties in providing for life’s necessities	693	46.0	434	28.8
4	My spouse spends a lot of time with his/her friends	491	32.6	300	19.9
5	Lack of sexual satisfaction and pleasure	539	35.8	505	33.5
6	Differences in religious beliefs	366	24.3	282	18.7
7	My spouse’s disrespect, contempt, and insults	818	54.3	617	41.3
8	My spouse beats me	644	42.8	240	15.9
9	My spouse restricts my relationships with others	552	36.7	389	25.8
10	Differences in going to and having parties	593	39.4	524	34.8
11	My spouse’s physical illness	251	16.7	215	14.3
12	My spouse’s mental illness	440	29.2	350	23.2
13	My spouse is untrustworthy and untruthful	848	56.3	608	40.4
14	Dissatisfaction with the way my spouse expresses his/her love and emotions	920	61.1	719	47.7
15	Inability to resolve conflicts, which leads to disputes	1007	66.9	835	55.4
16	Dissatisfaction with my spouse’s personality traits	883	58.6	676	44.9
17	Husband’s unemployment	574	38.1	319	21.2

The results of multiple group confirmatory factor analysis were in favor of measurement invariance between genders. The results of configural invariance (Figure S1) and metric invariance (Tables S4 and S5) and factor covariance invariance (Table S6) are shown in supplementary file.

Discussion

This study presented a new angle from which to explore subjective accounts of divorce among a national sample of divorcing individuals in a non-Western culture. Both men and women considerably tended to identify expressive/relationship-centered reasons for divorce seeking. Interestingly, the couples expressed the same important reasons for a divorce. Very similar observations were noted in some Western studies (Gravningen et al., 2017), but some differences were also identified (Amato & Previti, 2003).

In this work, the mean duration of marriage before a couple sought a divorce was less than 10 years. In similar investigations, the findings revealed that 75% of divorce cases occur before the 10th wedding anniversary of couples, which is reflecting a larger pattern we see in other societies (e.g., Western) (Gottman & Levenson, 2002). One fifth of the couples in the present study married because of their parents’ recommendations, indicating a rapid transition in the marriage culture of Iranian society; most of the marriages in the country half a century ago were determined and approved by parents, with females playing no role in this process (Aghajanian & Thompson, 2013). The demographics showed that the respondents, especially women, were young. In Iran, two thirds of women granted divorce are younger than 30 years of age which is in favor of rapid cultural changes facing Iranian new generations (Aghajanian & Thompson, 2013).

Although the reasons given by individuals for divorce seeking partly differ in various studies, certain factors, such as excessive conflict, arguments, and communication problems, are consistently documented in the majority of research (Scott et al., 2013). In the current work, the main divorce determinants identified by the participants were incompetence in establishing affectionate communication and failure to resolve conflicts and disputes. The same factors were examined as reasons for marital dissolution in a variety of explorations (Birditt et al., 2010; Gravningen et al., 2017; Lampard, 2013; Scott et al., 2013). These findings implied that teaching communication and conflict resolution skills before and at the beginning of marriage is an important requirement (Birditt et al., 2010). Other studies also emphasized providing training and counseling programs for enhancing positive connections and effective conflict resolution skills (Scott et al., 2013). Considering Gottman method with emphasis on couples’ relationships, a recent quasi-experimental study among Iranian couples revealed that a combination of interventions focused on conflict management and friendship enhancement leads to increased marital satisfaction and decrease in negative communication patterns (Davoodvandi et al., 2018). Such a finding was documented in a study utilizing a brief psychoeducational intervention called “Art and Science of Love Workshop” (Babcock et al., 2013).

Because of the invariance across genders, it was possible to make meaningful comparisons between females and males. In general, the expressive dimension was regarded by the respondents as more important than the expressive/internal dimension. The women also attached more weight to both dimensions than did the men. These findings align with the literature, which indicated that women are more sensitive to emotional issues than men and that they accord more weight to relationships (Amato & Previti, 2003; Hawkins et al., 2012). Women are more likely to raise multiple issues than are men as reasons for a divorce (Amato & Previti, 2003; Gravningen et al., 2017), whereas men are more likely to express that they did not know they were on the verge of a divorce (Amato & Previti, 2003). Unexpectedly, lack of sexual satisfaction was not among the main factors identified by the respondents, with this issue ranked 13th and 9th by the women and men, respectively. This finding coincides with that of a U.K. study, in which both men and women disregarded sexual difficulties as a principal driver of marital dissolution (Gravningen et al., 2017). In a U.S.-based research, however, 27% of men and 22% of women reported these problems, respectively (Hawkins et al., 2012). In another study carried out in Iran on newly married women, about 10% stated that they were not sexually satisfied with their spouses (Yazdanpanah et al., 2014).

In the present study, infidelity was not among the 10 main reasons for a divorce because the couples had to exceedingly hide such practice from each other for the sake of decency, as dictated by Islamic and religious principles. Alternatively, it may be due to harsher punishments by the state for infidelity and stronger social reputation costs. This may also be attributed to the low prevalence rate of infidelity in the country. The reasons why infidelity occurs among women are lack of attention, love, and emotion on the part of their husbands, whereas those that drive men to be unfaithful are sexual motivations (Scheeren et al., 2018).

Our study has several limitations. First, any scale seeking to measure marital satisfaction/dissatisfaction should include a technology component (e.g., social network system addiction and Internet infidelity). Second, the data in our study were not linked between couples, so we could not run dyadic analysis.

Conclusion

The results of the present study lead to the conclusion that women and men on the verge of a divorce in Iran have recognized that their inability to resolve conflicts and express love and emotions are crucial drivers of their decision to seek a divorce. This insight highlights the importance of emphasizing on conflict resolution and communication skills by marriage therapists/clinicians.

Supplemental material