Attempting An Understanding of Divorce: An Exploratory Study From Kerala India

Abstract

Divorce is a painful personal experience, which has a lasting impact. As a phenomenon, it is difficult and humiliating; and the divorced couple often faces stigma and several acute problems at personal and social levels. This paper tries to understand some of the reasons for divorce in Kerala, India, which has faced an increase in the rate of divorce over the last few decades. This paper is drawn from a larger study of families who have experienced divorce. It explores the reasons for divorce in contemporary Kerala. Data was derived from interviews with 20 custodial parents (15 mothers and 5 fathers), 11 noncustodial parents (eight fathers and three mothers), and 20 adolescent children (11 girls and 9 boys). The adolescents were in the age range of 12 to 17 years at the time of the study. Thematic analysis of the data showed that over-involvement of families of origin, domestic violence, substance abuse, and out-of-marriage relationships, were the main causes of their divorce. The intersectionality of gender, education, and occupation emerged through the data.   The data for this paper is drawn from a larger study; ethical clearance was obtained from the Institute Review Board (1RB).