Marriage Arrangement & Divorce

By Zeina Nehme

3/22/2014

Hypothesis
Variables Used: V740-Marriage Arrangement V743-Attitude Towards Divorce V744-Frequency of Divorce Arranged Marriages result in low divorce rate, hence the attitudes towards divorce are disapproved and the frequency of divorce is uncommon.
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Hypothesis (contd)
To test the hypothesis, I used CrossTabulations with correlations and statistical significance. I also researched authors who have coded these variables and they are: Goody, Rosenblatt, Schlegel, Coppinger, Eloul, etc

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Tables
Table 1a

Cross-tab of Marriage Arrangement & Attitudes Towards Divorce.

Cross tab V 743 2 Mildly disapproved attempts by other to rec onc ile couple 4 Ex pec ted, ac cepted, tolerated, not disapproved in 1st years 1 5 Strongly disapproved, stigma attac hed to divorce

Count

1 Ex pec ted, ac cepted, tolerated, not disapproved V 740 1 Selects and courts partner autonomously: approv al not needed 2 Selects partner parental, kin approv al needed 3 Suggests partner to parents,is approved arrangements proceed 4 Indiv idual choice & arranged marriages are alternatives 5 Parents choos e partner: individual c an object 6 Parents choos e partner: individual cannot easily object

3 A pproved if reasons are cons idered jusitif ied 1

Total 2

12

1 7

2 11 7 7 1

3/22/2014 Total

4 33

Tables (contd)
Table 1b

Symmetric Measures for the results from Table 1a

Sym m e tric Me as ure s Value -.248 33 Asy mp. Std. Errora .139
b Approx. T Approx. Sig. -1.782 .075

Ordinal by Ordinal N of Valid Cases

Kendall's tau-b

a. Not ass uming the null hypothes is . b. Using the asymptotic standard error as suming the null hy pothesis.

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Tables (contd)
Table 2a

Cross-tab of Marriage Arrangement & Frequency of Divorce.

Cross tab

Count V744 3 Moderate: a small minority of couples divorce 4 Frequent in first years of marriage and bef ore children 1

1 Univ ersal or almost univ ersal V740 1 Selects and courts partner autonomously: approv al not needed 2 Selects partner parental, kin approval needed 3 Suggests partner to parents ,is approv ed arrangements proceed 4 Indiv idual choic e & arranged marriages are alternatives 5 Parents choose partner: indiv idual c an object 6 Parents choose partner: indiv idual cannot eas ily objec t 1

2 Common, f requent, not uncommon 2

5 Rare, is olated instances , never

Total 4

18

1 5

2 18

1 8 7 5

3/22/2014 Total

43

Tables (contd)
Table 2b

Symmetric Measures for the results from Table 2a

Sym m e tric Me as ure s Value .170 43 Asy mp. Std. Errora .130
b Approx. T Approx. Sig. 1.320 .187

Ordinal by Ordinal N of Valid Cases

Kendall's tau-b

a. Not ass uming the null hypothes is . b. Using the asymptotic standard error as suming the null hy pothesis.

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Results
I reject the null hypothesis when I test it with the attitudes of divorce variable
Divorce attitudes are stricter in societies where individuals select their partner as we can see in tables 1a & 1b. Therefore this proves my hypothesis wrong The correlation is a negative slope. P value is significant at .075

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Results (contd)
However, I accept the null hypothesis when I test it with the frequency of divorce variable
Frequency of Divorce is more in societies where individuals select their partners and less in arranged marriage societies. The correlation is positive in this case P value is significant at .187

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Conclusion
The correlations of arranged marriage with attitudes towards divorce are opposite to those with frequency of divorce (behavior).
With a larger sample size, the standard error will be smaller, making the results more significant especially in the second case where frequency of divorce was tested and the p value is at .187, a larger sample would have reduced that value making it more significant. Whether a larger sample would produce significance would require testing with a larger sample.

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References
Bell, Robert R. Marriage and Family Interaction. Illinois: The Dorsey Press, 1971. Blood, Robert O. Jr. and Donald M. Wolfe. Husbands and Wives the Dynamics of Married Living. Illinois: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1960.

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References (contd)
Goody, Jack. "Comparative Studies in Kinship". Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1969. Coppinger, Robert M. and Paul C. Rosenblatt. Romantic Love and Subsistence dependence of Spouses. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology: vol. 24, no.3, p.310319. Albuquerque, 1968.

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References (contd)
Goody, Jack. ed. "The Character of Kinship". London/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1973. Goody, Jack. and S.J. Tambiah. eds. "Bridewealth and Dowry". New York: Cambridge University Press, 1973. Rheinstein, Max. Marriage Stability, Divorce, and the Law. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1972.
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References (contd)
Rosenblatt, Paul C. Marital Residence and the Function of Romantic Love. Ethnology: vol. VI, no.4, p.471-480. Pittsburgh, 1967. Schlegel, Alice and Rohn Eloul. Marriage Transactions: Labor, Property, Status. American Anthropologist: vol. 90, no.2, p.291309. Washington D.C., 1988.

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