Konflikt małżeński zakończony rozwodem w badaniach empirycznych : trudności i nowe perspektywy badawcze

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to review the sociological studies of marital conflicts and divorces, with close attention paid to research problems these studies encounter, the kind of applied research methods and research perspective. It has been concluded that sociological analyses of the problem of divorces in Poland are connected mainly with an institution of divorce formally introduced in the whole country by a secular matrimonial law after the II World War. Moreover, the analyses of marital conflicts and divorces are generally related to the changes of marital and family life, which are characteristic not only of Poland but of whole Europe. The transformations of family life in the 20th century are well reflected by a high rate of divorces, illegitimate children, one-parent families, reconstructed families and concubinage. The complexity of these phenomena and their influence on other aspects of everyday life is the major source of difficulties in studying marital conflicts ended in divorce. Divorces are caused by such phenomena, seemingly irrelevant to marital and family life, as: industrialisation, urbanisation, migrations or the development of science and education. Thus, the problem of marital conflicts ended in divorce is examined by various sciences and scientific sub-branches, which, however, give an incomplete picture of this phenomenon. Another important difficulty is connected with the classification of the reasons for divorces given in the court statistics, which forms a basis for quantitative analyses and studies of this problem. In the classification used in Polish court reporting, traditionally there are the following reasons: (1) conjugal infidelity, (2) alcoholism, (3) character discordance, (4) financial difficulties, (5) disagreements over financial matters, (6) blameworthy attitude towards the family, (7) others. This statistics, however, includes only the main reasons, ignoring indirect causes. The analyses only of quantitative nature give an incomplete picture of the phenomenon, to say the least, which is also influenced by effectiveness of legal norms, together with the problem of unlimited divorce accessibility in every case of permanent and total break-up of married life and the problem of limited divorce accessibility when this break-up is the only reason. Itmust be admitted, however, that even this symbolic presentation and classification of marital conflicts which lead to a divorce has also significant cognitive values because it shows these objective planes of conflicts which, for years, have been the most frequent and now require deeper consideration, i.e.: character discordance, alcoholism and conjugal infidelity. This state of affairs shows the need for qualitative studies which would be based, for example, on biographical analyses and interviews with divorcees (of low level of standardisation). New perspectives of the studies over marital conflicts ended in divorce are conditioned by new legal rules, especially by a newly-introduced institution of marital separation. The legislator decided to introduce this institution because he hoped to help those married couples who, by reason of their consciousness or religion, do not want to get divorced, or help those couples whose matrimonial life was not permanently disintegrated. Functioning of this institution will be a real challenge to new sociological studies and can help approach such empirical problems as for example: dynamics of the conflict between spouses, communication barrier, ways of negotiations, etc. Having reviewed sociological literature on the problems of marital conflicts and divorces, we can draw three main conclusions: (1) there is a lack of qualitative studies directed at divorced people, which would take into account their views on the barriers to a successful marriage, (2) there is a pressing need for systematic studies of marital disintegration, (3) all aspects of the problem should be considered in a more integrated way. These new perspectives of the studies over marital conflicts and divorces require, however, a joint effort of many specialists, which is not easy to accomplish, and it is only one of the possible research propositions and ways to deal with the problem.