A study of marriage and divorce in a sample of rural Appalachian women

A study of 67 female residents of the rural, Appalachian mountain area was conducted to explore marriage and divorce within the Appalachian culture, to determine reasons for marriage and divorce, and to explore role expectations for married and divorced women. Additionally, the study explored the nature of social support within the institution of marriage and attempted to determine mental health outcomes of divorce. A structured interview and standardized inventories of marital sex-role orientation, familism and psychiatric symptomatology were administered to respondents in a face-to-face interview. A discriminant function analysis was performed on the sociodemographic, marital history, and psychological variables of respondents and showed that lower educational level of respondent and her spouse, younger age at marriage and parents' marital status are the strongest predictors of marital status and age group. Psychological characteristics were not found to be strongly predictive of marital status or age group. Qualitative analysis was performed on the structured interview and results describe the strong expectations of the Appalachian culture for womens' early marriage and childbearing, expectations for a traditional role in family and community, causes of divorce, the lack of a clearly defined role for divorced women in the culture, the different sources of social support for married and divorced women, and the greater emotional problems reported by divorced women than married women. The study explores practical implications of these findings and directions for further research.