INDIAN MARRIED WOMEN EXPERIENCE HIGHER MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES OF DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY WHO HAD FREE-CHOICE MARRIAGES AGAINST WOMEN MARRIED THROUGH ARRANGED MARRIAGES.

Psychologists say Background and scope of the study: India is a secular and pluralistic society characterized by tremendous cultural and ethnic diversity. In India, the family is the most important institution that has survived through the ages. India, like most other less industrialized, traditional, eastern societies is a collectivist society that emphasizes family integrity, family loyalty, and family unity. More specifically, collectivism is reflected in a greater readiness to cooperate with family members and extended kin on decisions affecting most aspects of life, including career choice, mate selection, and marriage. Since ages, the Indian family has been a dominant institution in the life of individuals. (Avasthi, 2010)

Marriage has always existed in one form or another in every culture, ensuring social sanction to a physical union between man and woman and laying the foundation for building up of the family – the basic unit of society. Marriage being an important social institution is the basis for the family. The functions of marriage include regulation of sexual behavior, reproduction, nurturance, protection of children, socialization, consumption, and passing on the race. (Sharma et al., 2013)

 

Traditionally, most marriages were arranged in India, where parents decided who their children would marry. However, recent research has found evidence of greater young people’ s involvement in their marriage decision-making process and also increased desire for ‘ love’ marriages. Despite these new marriage formation patterns, traditional practices remain, specifically, co-residence with the groom’ s family and the practice of dowry. Traditionally, newly married women move in with their in-laws and come under the rule of their mother-in-law, and this persists in many families today, even with love marriages. Better quality relationships between women and their husbands, and also their inlaws, could help improve women’ s decision-making power (agency), potentially contributing to women being more able to delay, space and limit childbearing, and access health facilities, improving maternal and child health, among other potential outcomes related to economic, social, and personal empowerment. Better household and couple’ s relationship quality also affects women’ s overall quality of life and happiness.

 

The household structure is not static ( co-resident or not) and couples may live with the husband’s parents in the beginning and influences of families remain even if couples live on their own.

(Diamond-Smith et al., 2019)

India is largely a patriarchal society. The prescription of marriage is more stringent for women. Women must get married. There is research evidence to suggest that for men, marriage confers protection against depression, while it appears to be associated with higher rates of depression in women. There is some evidence that within marriage, the traditional role of the female is limiting, restricting, and even boring, which may lead to depression. Marriage is the greatest event in an individual’s life and brings with it many responsibilities. Besides, studies consistently show greater distress among widowed/separated/divorced men and women. Greater distress is seen among married women compared to married men. In a study of women treated in hospital emergency rooms after a suicide attempt, over 40% were young rural women 15‑34 years of age; an unhappy marriage (over 60%), financial problems (over 40%), and having been beaten by a spouse (almost 40%) were the most frequently cited stressful events they had experienced. (Sharma et al., 2013)

This study compares mental health issues experienced by women married through love marriages against arranged marriages eventually.