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IMPACT OF MARITAL PROBLEM ON SOCIAL UPBRINGING OF CHILDREN

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background of the Study

The increase in the rate of marital problems is one of the most visible changes in Western family life. It is seen together with increases in cohabitation and unwed parenthood, and declines in marriage and fertility as part of a broader change, the “second demographic transition” (Lesthaeghe 1995). These changes have brought about various concerns, some of which focusing on their economic implications, others on the effects on child development, and still others that see them as moral problems related to a breakdown of the family institution (Ellwood and Jencks 2004).

Several studies have reported how children living in divorced and other lone parent families tend to have lower levels of economic well-being, and how the cross-national variation in these gaps is closely related to support from the welfare state (Vleminckx and Smeeding 2000; Aassve et al. 2007).

There is a large research literature analyzing the effects of marital problems. Several studies from various countries have tried to estimate the economic, social, health, and psychological consequences of divorces on adults, and generally found that marital problems is associated with some negative outcomes on, at least, the other party (although it may have positive psychological effects on some).

There is no general theory of divorce, but marriage is mostly seen as an arrangement in which expressive and instrumental goods and services are exchanged between husbands and wives (Teachman 2002). According to this approach, marriages are contracted because they provide men and women with economic and psychological

well-being exceeding what they could gain outside the marriage. In the same vein,

marriages are dissolved when the value of the outside options exceed that of marriage for at least one of the spouses. What is notable in these theories is that they mainly hold that spouses decide on whether to continue their marriages based on calculations of their personal utilities. Therefore, while the well-being of other parties involved in the marriage particularly, the other spouse and the children may be taken into account when deciding on the continuation of the marriage, it does not necessarily play a role.

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