Comparative Study on Marital Adjustment, Reasons for Living and Suicide Risk in Married Individuals and People Going through Divorce

Abstract

India has observed trend of suicide among married individuals especially those who are going through their divorce proceedings. Nonetheless, the current data on suicide deaths reports large number of individuals being married in which suicide by men was higher as compared to females. Several studies suggest association of marriage as significant factor in suicidality. However, researches in India report limited data, lack of systematic investigation considering suicide risk in married population as well as no data on protective factors. Therefore, the aim of this study is to understand factors associated with suicide via systematically investigating and comparing marital adjustment, reasons for living and suicide risk within group of married individuals and people going through divorce. Method- The sample of 92 individuals (46- married, 46- going through divorce) participated in the study using sampling method of combination of purposive and snowball sampling. The tools used to measure included Personal Datasheet, Marital Adjustment Inventory by C. G Deshpande, Reasons for Living by Marsha Linehan and Columbia Suicide Severity Scale by Kelly Posner. The data was analyzed using SPSS software on descriptive statistics such as mean, median, standard deviation, range, skewness and kurtosis and normality test of Shapiro Wilk was administered which showed that the data was not normal. Therefore, non-parametric test of Mann- Whitney was employed. Results showed significance difference in Marital adjustment and suicide between the groups whereas reasons for living had no significanc0e difference between them. Conclusion of the study- The study showed that married individuals were high in marital adjustment as compared to people going through divorce, suicide risk was higher in people going through divorce whereas there was no significant difference in reasons for living in both the groups.