The Social And Econmic Effect Of Divorse In Oromia Regional State: A Case Study In Walmera District

Abstract

Divorce is the legal dissolution of a socially and legally recognized marital relationship that alters the obligations and privileges of the two persons involved. Hence, the main objective of this study was to assess the major causes of divorce and its effects onchildren’s, women and general community wellbeing at Wolmera woreda. In the process of selection of sampling sites and target population, different sampling methods were employed. Random sampling was used to select sampling kebeles because all kebeles are assumed to be having similar attribute in the case of divorce experience. Accordingly, four kebeles were selected from the Wolmera woreda. The target population was selected purposively and snowballing sampling methods. To get the relevant data for this study the data obtained from both primary and secondary sources and employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Qualitative approach enabled to deeply explore the topic and present the findings from participant experiences and their perception. This approach hold in-depth interview (IDI), focus group discussion (FGD), case history and key informant interview (KII) to collect the necessary data from target population. To explore the actual experiences and perceptions of parental divorced children the data was collected through quantitatively based on structured questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The result showed as many different and complex causes and reasons for divorce. Generally, economic, social, psychological and emotional problems were taken as major causes of divorce. Failure of husbands’ giving money for household expenditure and the interest of a marriage partners to access and control over the other couple’s property could be mentioned among economic causes of divorce. On regards to social cause of divorce, post-marriage living arrangement and relative interference, family marital background, cultural and religious differences are the major one. From the psychological cause of divorce, high expectation about socio-economic success and spouse’s behavior before entering in to marriage was mentioned as a cause of divorce. Some marriage partner had a rosy dream before marriage but they faced a hard reality after marriage Economic, social, psychological and emotional effects of divorce have a great impact on children’s wellbeing. Economically children are suffered from unable to get basic needs like adequate food, clothing and educational support. Because some of the children unable to get alimony from non-custodial parents to cover basic expenses. The primary social effect of divorce is included a decline of child-parent relationship, when children received less attention and emotional support from parents. Academic performances and schooling quality also affected because of parents’ divorce. Parental divorced children suffered from different psychological problems like: depress, upset, anger, frustration, loss of confidence, and generally they were not happy and dissatisfied with both parents’ support and care. Regardless of its wide range occurrence, divorce has not given attention by the nation and other concerned bodies. Therefore the society should prevent the prevalence of divorce and ensuring its proper adjustment through changing the social environment in connection to marriage stability.