Divorce data from EU countries show that one in every two couples in Europe ends in divorce. The divorce rate in Europe has been rising in recent years, among which the divorce rates in Lithuania, Latvia and Denmark are very high in EU countries.
The survey on divorce in the British national database also shows that there were 1 14720 divorce cases in England and Wales in 20 13 years, among which couples aged 40-44 were most likely to divorce.
In addition to western European countries, divorce research in the United Arab Emirates also shows that two out of every five families in the Arab region are disintegrated because of divorce.
In 20 10, there were14 families divorced in Japan.
The data survey of marriage and divorce in the United States in 20 14 also shows that more than13 of American families ended in divorce. Every year, more than 1 10,000 American children experience parents' divorce and family breakdown.
The rising divorce rate is still one of the most important topics concerned by sociologists all over the world. Many scholars from different countries try to explain this social problem. Most of the existing studies have analyzed the influence of divorce on family members from the perspectives of sociology, psychology and economics.
Recently, some overseas scholars began to explore the influence of divorce on family members from a new perspective. For example, in her survey of divorced families in Singapore, Kathy Sharon interviewed 35 divorcees through divorce biographies. Of the 35 respondents, 30 were women and 5 were men. Compared with pure feminist research, her research object is not entirely women, and a small number of male samples are helpful to compare the differences between different sexes after divorce. In addition, Ke Salon's innovation is that she closely links family studies with western individualism theory, and thinks that divorce is becoming more and more independent of social dogma and public opinion and becomes a highly personalized behavior. Divorce shows that divorced couples become masters of their own destiny, manage their own affairs independently and choose the life they want.
In addition to feminist studies, many researchers also use theories of various dimensions to explain the different effects of divorce on adults and children.
Based on the research results of western sociologists and social psychologists on family relations, especially divorce, especially the frontier concerns of researchers, this paper discusses the influence of divorce on couples and children from the perspective of differences. This paper selects two parts: the influence of divorce on men and women.
The Influence of Divorce on Men
Compared with women and children, divorce will reduce men's social relations and affect their health. Western academic circles have always been controversial about whether women or men bear greater pressure after divorce. A large number of documents investigated the psychological status of divorced couples. The results show that men are more likely to face many difficulties than women, mainly in their social interaction, health status and work pressure.
First of all, from the socio-economic point of view, divorce will have a negative impact on men's social capital, making men lose social resources and social networks after their wives and children become adults. Wife has always been regarded as the most important social capital in the family. In marriage, the husband will not only get his wife's concern about his life, but also get valuable information and social networks with his wife's encouragement and support. Divorce means that the husband has lost a bosom friend, but for the wife, even if divorced, she has other bosom friends to talk about life.
Research shows that divorced men's social networks are more likely to collapse, and it is difficult for them to establish their own new social networks; Divorce will also bring negative emotions to many men, making them more likely to lack self-confidence and even difficult to trust others. At the same time, another survey also shows that divorced men are more likely to encounter more social isolation than married men; Especially compared with divorced women, divorced men rarely win the sympathy of others in society.
Secondly, divorce will affect the custody of most men with children. Crook pointed out: "Frequent interaction between father and child can win children's attachment and recognition. Although the father-son relationship will continue to be maintained after divorce, if the child is raised by the mother, the interaction between father and son will be greatly reduced. " So after divorce, the relationship between father and son will become more fragile. Once a man loses custody of his children, he may lose the social network support provided to his children in the middle and old age.
Divorced men who lose custody may also face more crises. Crook believes: "After divorce, the one who has custody of the children faces fewer difficulties than the one who loses both his partner and children. Men after divorce, especially those who are divorced and have no child custody, are more vulnerable. " Moreover, divorced fathers who have no custody are more likely to lose contact with their children, and the pressure is increasing with age.
Thirdly, from the perspective of personal health, divorce has a prominent negative impact on men's mental health and physical health. Married life is beneficial for men to get more life care, emotional support and physiological needs. After divorce, the pressure of work and life will bring a series of psychological diseases to men and affect their health. For example, many men will be affected by negative energy and become sad, lost, lonely, melancholy and indifferent. Lipd and Ka BenQ's research shows that divorced men are more likely to drink. Similarly, Waylon's research found that 68% of men suffer from new mental illness after divorce.
Although other studies have not emphasized the different psychological effects of divorce on men and women, studies have shown that divorced men are more likely to have physical and mental health problems and suffer from serious physical and mental health diseases because they have no wife to take care of them. Divorced men who have no custody of their children find it difficult to see them, and are prone to long-term anxiety, depression and sleep problems. Avril Lavigne pointed out that these divorced men "will have less contact with their families, seldom visit other family members, and seldom call or chat with their families. Compared with divorced women, they will have less contact with their families or relatives and friends after divorce, and they are unwilling to communicate their lives with their families. They are prone to self-pity, often troubled by feelings of loss, depression and helplessness, and their self-esteem will also be affected, and they think they are losers. "
Many sociological models show that divorced men are likely to face the threat of unemployment or loss of self-care ability. The most obvious example is BenQ's empirical study, which compares the life trajectories of couples in Dutch families and samples two kinds of couples. Research data show that divorce can easily lead to unemployment and life embarrassment for men.
Although divorce has brought many negative effects to men, it does not mean that divorce has negative effects on men; The positive influence they get is that they can enjoy more freedom, do not have to bear too many family responsibilities, and are not even controlled by any other family members.
The Influence of Divorce on Women
Compared with men, the impact of divorce on women is different, mainly reflected in the decline of economic situation and social status.
First of all, from the perspective of economic income, the direct impact of divorce on women is the reduction of economic happiness and happiness index. The research results tend to be consistent, and the economic impact of divorce on women is much higher than that of men. A survey on the custody of children by divorced parents shows that 83% of divorced women have custody of their children, which shows that it is usually easy for divorced women to obtain custody and custody of their children, but it also forces them to invest more financial, material and energy in taking care of their children. Most recent studies emphasize that the income gap between men and women after divorce shows that the economic income of divorced women will be greatly reduced. Although compared with those happily married couples, either party of divorce will actually experience economic difficulties or financial crisis, almost all studies show that the financial difficulties faced by divorced women are more obvious than those faced by men.
2 1 century, a series of research results on the financial difficulties of divorced women are similar to those in the 1990s. Most studies believe that divorced women with children will encounter multiple economic difficulties compared with divorced men. Divorced women with child custody have a large decline in life happiness index, which has dropped by 36%; Men who have no custody of their children, because they don't need to invest too much in their children, their life happiness index has increased by 28%. Hutcheson pointed out that after divorce, the quality of life of women decreased by 73%, while that of men increased by 42%. He believes that divorced mothers' satisfaction with life, living conditions and happiness index are only about half that of divorced fathers.
Some scholars made an empirical study on 2/kloc-0 divorced women with child custody in New Zealand, and found that some women would be intimidated or harassed by their ex-husbands. In the process of investigating women, Bodhi people and other researchers divided 50 divorced women into two groups according to their age. The first group is women aged 20-30, and the second group is women aged 30-40. It is found that divorced women will not have too many psychological problems, and different ages will bring them different feelings. Young divorced women have less mental stress than middle-aged divorced women.
Compared with men, divorced women bear more serious and lasting economic pressure; The responsibility of taking care of the children belongs almost entirely to the mother, and the father rarely participates in it. Single mothers bear huge living expenses alone in order to support themselves and their children. This kind of economic pressure is particularly obvious in those middle and lower class families. Some studies in Europe and America show that divorced women will get financial support from the state, so their lives will not be particularly difficult.
However, these studies are based on the specific social environment, which obviously ignores the fact that different countries have different subsidy policies for divorced women. It should be noted that at present, many countries still have underdeveloped welfare systems and cannot provide divorced women with adequate living allowances and necessary support. Therefore, it is not difficult to see that divorced women will face more difficulties if they have custody of their children.
Secondly, from the perspective of social status, divorce will make women's social status decline. Research shows that economic difficulties will inevitably affect women's social status, especially for those women who used to have no worries about food and clothing in marriage. The great contrast of living conditions will make them feel that divorce is a turning point in their lives. Constance believes that many divorced women are discriminated against and even stigmatized in society, because divorce is regarded as a shameful thing, so divorce has caused undue damage to women's status. Gary Beth's research also believes that the stigma of divorce makes it difficult for divorced women to meet the right person and reorganize their families.
Thirdly, divorce will also bring some positive effects to women. Most studies emphasize the negative effects of divorce on women, but seldom see the potential advantages of divorce. A violent husband will show his bad temper when he gets along with his family, and even beat his wife and children. If a wife ends her marriage with her abusive husband in time, then she can get more happiness. In addition, unlike many divorced men who are threatened by unemployment, divorce can give divorced women more employment opportunities. Many research results also confirm this view. The employment rate of divorced women, especially those who were housewives before divorce or whose economic income was not as high as that of their ex-husbands, has greatly improved.
Divorced women need to earn money to raise their children and explore different occupations to make a living, which makes them have more employment opportunities, richer social life and enhanced personal happiness. Divorce forces most women who used to stay at home all day to actively look for job opportunities, cherish their jobs, fully enjoy the fun brought by their jobs, and improve their self-esteem and self-confidence. Therefore, women can properly handle some difficulties after divorce, and the happiness index after five years of divorce is higher than before. In another empirical study, Reisman believes that divorced women will devote more time and energy to their work and switch freely between the roles of supporting their families and working. Their attitude of "living independently" makes them more independent and confident.
But some researchers hold different views. They believe that divorced women may not enjoy the pleasure brought by work, but will feel great pressure in life because of divorce. The difference between the above viewpoints is that different researchers take different social environments as their research backgrounds, and each social background has different policy systems and values. Whether divorced women have more employment opportunities depends on their previous life experience and established work attitude. For housewives who have no work experience before divorce, they will certainly face more challenges, because they lack the skills needed by the market or have not received a good education.