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. |