Preliminary Study: Does Marital Satisfaction Predict Divorce

Intention during Covid-19 Pandemic?

Muhammad Iqbal

, Husnul Mujahadah

, Dini Hanifa

and Tazkiya Nabila

Mercu Buana University, Faculty of Psychology, Jakarta, Indonesia

Airlangga University, Department of Psychology, Surabaya, Indonesia

University of Indonesia, Faculty of Psychology, Jakarta, Indonesia

University of Diponegoro, Faculty of Psychology, Semarang, Indonesia

Keywords: Marital Satisfaction, Divorce Intention, COVID-19 Pandemic, Marital Conflict.

Abstract: COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way people live, including families. In some families, this condition

has brought out marital conflicts, which may lead to divorce. One of the causes of divorce is marital

dissatisfaction. However, it is still unclear whether marital dissatisfaction predicts divorce intention during

the pandemic. This study aims to determine the relationship between marital satisfaction and divorce

intention during the pandemic and whether there was a relationship between demographic characteristics

and divorce intention. Using the EMS questionnaire developed by Fowers and Olson (1993) and the

Divorce Intention questionnaire developed by Ardian et. al (2018), the study found a negative relationship

between the two variables. While marital satisfaction is low, divorce intention is high. Marital satisfaction

predicts the rise of divorce intention. A total of 23 participants (56%) expressed their desire to divorce.

More than half of the participants (60%) reported marital problems during the pandemic, such as

communication problems, conflicts with spouses and children, mental health problems, and gadget

addiction. Recommendations are to prevent divorce during the pandemic by implementing communication

and problem-solving training to improve the couple's skills in managing marital conflicts. Future studies can

measure others variables that predict divorce intentions, particularly during a crisis.

1 INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic has created tremendous

short-term and possibly long-term effects on

people's behaviour. It is undeniable that the COVID-

19 pandemic has changed the world order radically,

from health, education, economic, social life, and

family lives. According to Hamermesh (2020), the

pandemic had a significant impact on the way

people work and live, which has changed the well-

being of their individuals. The changes of work

location for being at home and the partial closure of

restaurants, hotels, theatres, museums, and sports

arenas significantly impact family life.

Nowadays people are spending most of their

time at home, from working, school, to parenting.

The important thing about spending time was whom

the time spent with could affect our happiness

(Hamermesh, 2020). The typical activities can be

enjoyed within others people's presence. However,

during the COVID-19 pandemic, the social

restriction imposed on people forced them to spend

most of their time with their families. People's

satisfaction with life is different, depending on what

they do and with whom they do it (Hamermesh,

2020). Previous study shows, the educator’s

happines is different before and during COVID-19.

In which educators are happier before pandemic

(Mardhatillah & Rahman, 2020).

The COVID-19 crisis has forced married couples

to spend more time together and less time alone. It

also means less time socializing with other people,

friends, or colleagues (Maiti and Innamuri, 2020).

These conditions make family interactions more

intense than in previous days (Maiti & Innamuri,

2020). Some families feel the positive impact of this

closure by increasing the intensity of communication

and increasing the intimacy of their relationship

(Apriasari & Al-jannah, 2021). They also use this

opportunity to get to know each other better among

their family members. On the other hand, some

families feel the negative impact of more family

Iqbal, M., Mujahadah, H., Hanifa, D. and Nabila, T.

Preliminary Study: Does Marital Satisfaction Predict Divorce Intention during Covid-19 Pandemic?.

DOI: 10.5220/0010811100003347

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Psychological Studies (ICPsyche 2021), pages 251-262

ISBN: 978-989-758-580-7

251

problems (Apriasari & Al-jannah, 2021), worsening

the conflict and leading to divorce.

Luetke from The School of Public Health at

Indiana University Bloomington Lehman (2020)

found that 34% of the couples involved in the study

reported experience more conflict with their partners

since the pandemic began. Marital conflict and

reduced intimacy were more likely to happen in

couples who live under the same roof. The survey

also found that couples with increased conflicts were

more likely to feel lonely and depressed. A decrease

in sexual intimacy indicates it. At the same time,

sexual intimacy was crucial to individual well-being

and marital satisfaction between partners. Another

result was that sexual satisfaction was associated

with better mental health outcomes (Lehman, 2020).

The social restrictions have further exacerbated

marital conflicts (Maiti & Innamuri, 2020). When

couples face conflict, it will not be possible for them

to implement coping strategies such as temporarily

separating or diverting to other activities or meeting

other people, which can exacerbate their conflict

further. Even couples who live together will

experience excessive anxiety and stress because of

each other's guilt.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left many

marriages more vulnerable and increased marital

conflict to its height. According to Lehman (2020),

there is an increasing phenomenon of divorces as

couples struggle with emotional and economic

downturns over the past 11 months. In Indonesia, the

divorce rate has increased to 5 per cent (Tristanto,

2020). Out of the 34 provinces, three reported a

significant increase in divorce cases (Tristanto,

2020). The three provinces were West Java, Central

Java, and East Java. West Java was the province that

contributed the most to divorce rates. Meanwhile,

there are no significant increases in divorce cases

outside Java Province (Yusuf, 2020).

Director-General of the Religious Courts of the

Supreme Court, Aco Nur, stated that divorce cases

increased from 20 thousand cases in April and May

to 57,000 in June and July 2020. Based on the data

from some regions, several regions reported an

increase in divorce rates as if Semarang reported a

threefold increase in divorce cases. Meanwhile, the

Bojonegoro Religious Court (Pengadilan Agama

Bojonegoro) recorded an increase in divorce cases

by 14.57% from January to June this year compared

to last year.

The causes of divorce are complex. Based on the

Ministry of Communication and Information website

(Kominfo, 2020), most divorce cases that went to

court during January-August 2020 were continuous

disputes and disagreements between husbands and

wives, economic factors, and wife or husband

leaving the other. Deputy Chairperson of the

Semarang Class 1A Religious Court, Muhamad

Camuda, stated the increased number of divorces

was due to unemployment, laid-off workers, which

causing household conflicts due to economic

difficulty. The Bojonegoro Religious Court reported

that the main reasons were the husband's inability to

provide money for his wife, unpreparedness on

mental and psychological, and the inability to deal

with marital conflicts. Previous research also found

that various factors trigger divorce during this

pandemic, for example, the decline in the economy,

conflicts, and domestic violence (Apriasari &

Al- jannah, 2021).

Divorce has severe implications for families.

Among the negative impacts was the decline in

family members' physical and psychological well-

being (Khumas et al., 2015). Children were the most

affected family members as a result of divorce.

Research in Norway on children whose parents have

divorced, they have health problems and self-

concept. They tend to have lower self-confidence

(Meland et al., 2020). Another study in France found

that parental divorce was associated with decreased

academic performance in 5 years old children. The

decline in academic achievement is also following

by motivation, autonomy, and agility (Nusinovici et

al., 2018). Dong et al., (2002) studied children

whose parents have divorced in China and found

that they tend to have lower adaptability than

children from intact families. In addition, children

from divorced families also showed higher anxiety

and experienced behavioural problems such as

delinquency, aggressiveness, and attention disorders

than children from families with complete parents.

Another study also found that divorce affects the

life of a husband or wife. Research in Egypt found

that wives were the most affected. They felt

helpless, sad, socially isolated, considered a failure

as wives, and experienced emotional emptiness

(Mendoza et al., 2020). Meanwhile, husbands or

men experience the short-term effects of divorce.

One of the effects is the decline in well-being and

life satisfaction (Leopold, 2018). Divorce also has

social impacts such as narrowing social networks

that could affect decreasing social support, causing

negative life experiences and psychological suffering,

and economic hardship for women (Johnson & Wu,

2002). Therefore, divorce has a negative impact both

on the individual and social levels.

During the pandemic, families are more likely to

conflict. If this continuously happens can increase

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the possibilities of divorce. Previous research has

found that crises in life such as war or having a

severe illness exacerbate stress levels and are more

likely to lead to the termination of marriage ties

(Prime, et. al., 2020 in (Turliuc & Candel, 2021)).

During the crisis, the characteristics of the

vulnerable groups is lower socioeconomic and

lower levels of marital satisfaction (Turliuc &

Candel, 2021). In Indonesia, research during the

pandemic found that the factors behind divorce

were economic factors with the characteristics of

young women, low education background,

unemployed, duration of marriage under five years,

and having one child (Wijayanti, 2021). Under the

Marriage Law, dissolution of marriage is regulated

(Undang- Undang Pernikahan Nomor 16 Tahun

2019). There are several reasons for divorce,

husband/wife commits adultery or gambles, one of

them leaves without any news for two years, and

one side commits severe abuse (verbal or physical).

Divorce always begins with the divorce

intention. Desire alone is not enough to make a

couple of divorces but must be followed with

behaviour that could make divorce happens.

According to (Khumas et al., 2015), divorce

intention is the degree of stability of the wife to end

the marriage bond based on the rules of the

Marriage Law in Indonesia. In the Indonesian

Religious Affairs Court for Islamic believers, there

are two types of divorce, the divorce filed by the

wife and the divorce proposed by the husband.

(Khumas et al., 2015) only discusses divorce in the

women of the Muslim population. While in other

religions, divorce can be filed by the wife or

husband (Khumas et al., 2015). In this study, our

purpose is to measure divorce intention on husband

or wife, so we define divorce intention as the extent

to which the husband or wife wants to end the

marriage bond.

The theoretical framework in this research to

measure divorce intentions is the Theory of

Planned- Behavior. This theory is suitable to

analyze social and individual conflicts in divorce

proposed by Fishbein and Ajzen (in Mirzaei et al.,

2013). This theory can predict the behaviour of

couples who want to divorce through four aspects:

the intention or desire to divorce from partner

members, perceived behaviour control which is the

ease with which members of a partner decide to

divorce; the subjective norm is the social norm of

the divorce itself, and attitude which is the beliefs

perceived about divorce (Ardian et al., 2018). The

theory has two notable assumptions, 1) individuals

make decisions based on logic and reasoning

analysis from available data, and 2) individuals

make decisions based on the consequences of their

behaviour (Mirzaei et al., 2013). The theory of

Planned- Behavior was relevant because it can

analyze the internal factors that make a husband or

wife want to divorce, such as the perception of the

marital conflict they experience. In addition, the

wife will think about the impact or consequences of

receiving stigma (from parents, extended family,

and relatives).

A COVID-19 pandemic is a stressful event that

husbands or wives do not see as just a personal

burden but as one that also affects their relationship

(Randall & Bodenmann, 2017). According to

Turliuc and Candel (2021), conflict and unstable

economic conditions throughout the COVID-19

pandemic strongly correlate with the appearance of

chronic stress and low marital satisfaction in

couples. According to Bodenmann (1995), in the

systemic-transactional (STM) model, stressors

arising outside the relationship can spread,

generating internal stress. Together, these two

types of stress are associated with significant

decreases in the quality of romantic relationships

(Randall & Bodenmann, 2017). Stress spillover

affects relational satisfaction through several

mechanisms, such as reducing the time spent

together by couples, reducing perceptions of

mutuality, reducing communication, or increasing

the possibility on some problematical traits such as

anxiety, depression, and rigidity (Bodenmann,

1995).

Divorce intentions factors vary from marital

dissatisfaction, economic problems, extreme

differences in beliefs, personality differences,

cultural differences, addiction, infidelity, lack of

attention to gender identity and sexual orientation,

differences in family to family interference on

marital problems (Hoseini F, Rezapour M, 2015).

One of the things is the internal factors of couples

in perceiving dissatisfaction in marriage, which

triggers divorce intentions. According to

Baumeister et al., (2007), marital satisfaction is

defined as the subjective satisfaction felt by

married couples based on aspects of marriage.

Marital satisfaction reflects the perceived benefits

and disadvantages of marriage for the couple. The

more losses that one of the partners has, the more

unhappy the marriage is. Similarly, the greater the

perceived benefits, the more satisfied a person's

marriage and spouse (Baumeister et al., 2007).

Marital satisfaction theoretically decreases

along with the duration of the marriage. The

highest marriage satisfaction at the wedding

Preliminary Study: Does Marital Satisfaction Predict Divorce Intention during Covid-19 Pandemic?

253

ceremony tends to decrease as the duration of

marriage increases (Hirschberg et al., 2011).

Marital satisfaction is compound by very complex

things. According to Fowers and Olson (1993), ten

aspects underlie marital satisfaction: Personality

Issues, Equalitarian roles, Communication, Conflict

resolution, Financial management, Leisure

activities, Sexual relationship, Children and

marriage, Family and friends and Religious

orientation. The aspect that underlies marital

satisfaction has a wedge with the intention to

divorce according to the Theory of Planned-

Behavior, which measures the internal and external

aspects that affect a person's intention to divorce.

Therefore, based on previous research, we

propose three research questions:

1. is there any correlation between marital

satisfaction and the intention to divorce during

the COVID-19 pandemic;

2. is there a relationship between demographic

characteristics and the intention to divorce; and

3. how was the marital satisfaction and divorce

intention during the pandemic?

2 METHOD

2.1 Research Design

To answer the research questions, we used a

quantitative approach with a cross-sectional study.

The sampling technique uses purposive sampling by

specifying the characteristics of the participants.

This research aims to understand how marital

satisfaction predicts divorce intention during the

COVID-19 pandemics. We also want to know

whether the socio-demographics of participants

predict divorce intention. We want to know how

participants measure their marital satisfaction and

divorce intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2.2 Hyphoteses

We hypothesized there is a correlation between

marital satisfaction and divorce intention during the

COVID-19 pandemic. We predict that if marital

satisfaction is low, divorce intention is high. We also

hypothesized that socio-demographic characteristics

such as duration of marriage, gender, ethnicity,

employment, having a children, and educational

background predict divorce intentions.

2.3 Participants

Participants were recruited via online media.

Research flyers were announced and shared with

marriage/couple counsellors and psychologists

through the psychological institution. To participate

in the study, participants had to meet two inclusion

criteria: 1) in the past three months have been

consulted marriage problems with a counsellor or

psychologist; 2) married or have ever been married.

This criterion chosen because one of the items on the

divorce intention scale asks psychologists or

counsellors' role in helping them cope with marital

problems. With these criteria, we suspect that a

husband/wife who has consulted with a psychologist

or counsellor has problems in their families and is

considering options to divorce. The participants who

agreed to fill the questionnaires contacted then given

informed consent along with the questionnaires. We

stated the risks to the participants, including

uncomfortable items that may trigger their past

experiences. The data collected using Google Forms.

After that, participants submitted the questionnaires.

2.4 Measures

The ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale (EMS) was

used to measure marital satisfaction. This

questionnaire developed by (Fowers & Olson, 1993)

has 15 items that include ten aspects of the marital

issue; personality issue, equalitarian roles,

communication, conflict resolution, financial

management, leisure activities, sexual relationship,

children and marriage, family and friends, and

religious orientation. Response choices scale, 1)

Strongly disagree; 2) Disagree; 3) Neutral; 4) Agree;

to 5) Strongly agree. Sample question from

questionnaire; "My partner and I understand each

other perfectly", "I am pleased about how we make

decisions and resolve conflict", "I feel great about

how we each practise our religious beliefs and

values".

The Indonesian-language questionnaire from

previous studies was used. The Cronbach Alpha

from the previous study was = .962 (Soraiya et al.,

2016). The internal consistency of this study was

=.920. This measure has good reliability, and all

items are valid.

The divorce intention was measured using a

questionnaire developed by (Ardian et al., 2018).

This questionnaire analyzes the characteristics of

divorce applicants in Iran using the theory of

planned-behaviour. It gives a suitable framework on

how to understand the behaviour behind the divorce.

ICPsyche 2021 - International Conference on Psychological Studies

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It can predict, change, and explain why a couple

desires to divorce. The divorce intention scale

consists of 50 items, including four aspects,

attitude (13 items), perceived behaviour control (21

items), subjective norm (10 items), and intention (6

items).

The scale adaptation process begins with

translating 50 English items into Indonesian. After

being translated, we give the Indonesian language

scale to the translator to check the propriety. After

that, the scale was tested for validity with content

validity and item validity. The validity test is used

to determine the accuracy and precision of the scale

measurement (Hendryadi, 2017). Content validity

with face validity uses a rater from expert

judgment, psychologists and counsellors—the

results of content validity the scale can be used for

measurement. Then to find out whether the scale is

statistically valid, we use item validity. The results

of the first round analysis found that eight items

did not meet the excellent standard (r = .312), so

we eliminated these items (r(39), p>.05). After the

first round, 42 valid items were used, which

covered attitude (10 items), perceived behaviour

control (18 items), subjective norms (8 items), and

intention (6 items). Next, we conducted a second

round of analysis, which resulted in no dropped

items, so in the data processing, we used 42 items.

The Cronbach Alpha on this study = .932. Example

items of questionnaires, "For me, divorce is the last

solution of my life", "My parents support me to

divorce", "I intend to reconcile since I decide to

divorce in a hurry". The response was 5 Likert

Scale from 'Strongly Disagree' to 'Strongly Agree.'

There are three additional questions; the first

question asking about the couple's problems during

the past three months, such as gadget addiction,

communication, conflict with husband/wife or

extended family, parenting, infidelity, economic,

mental health, and verbal or physical abuse—the

second question asking whether this problem

happened recently during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The last question was the participants thought of

divorce. This question was to understand the urge

to divorce in participants.

2.4 Data Analysis Technique

The data analysis on this study using SPSS

(Statistical Package for Social Science) program for

Windows 22.0 version. The data were analyzed

using Pearson correlation to understand the

correlation between marital satisfaction and divorce

intention. A Chi-square test uses to assess whether

there is an association between socio-demographic

characteristics and divorce intention.

3 RESULT

3.1 Participants Characteristics

Forty-one participants between the ages of 23 and

54 (M = 38.2, SD = 9.27) was recruited. The

majority were female (80.4%). Educational

background of participants, high school graduate

(34.1%), bachelor degree (43.9%), and post-

graduate (21.9%). Half of the participants were

housewives (51.2%), while the other half were self-

employed, teachers, civil servants, and employees.

Duration of marriage from under ten years to more

than twenty years. More than half participants

(82.9%) had children. Socio- demographic

characteristics are present in Table. 1

A total of 23 participants (56%) had an urge to

divorce. Participants choose more than one

problem that is currently happening. The most

problems choose by participants were

communication problems (41.4%), gadget

addiction (34.1%), conflicts with spouse, children

(26.8%), and mental health problems (29.2%). We

also asked are this problem happened recently

during the pandemic; 10 participants (24.3%)

answered Yes, while the remaining 31 participants

(75.6%) answered No. Participants also asked if the

pandemic worsened their problem; 15 participants

(36.5%) answered Yes.

3.2 Categorization of Marital

Satisfaction and Divorce Intention

Data on marital satisfaction scores and divorce

intentions are split into low, high, and moderate

categories. Hypothetical norms are methods in data

categorization. The hypothetical norm uses a scale's

maximum score as a reference. Participants' high

and low scores depending on their position in the

range of maximum scores on a scale (Widhiarso,

2014).

The categorization found that marital satisfaction

tended to be moderate (56.0%) and low (24.3%),

similar with divorce intention also tended to be

moderate (65.8%) and low (2.4%). Data

categorization is present in Table 2.

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255

Table 1: Socio-demographic Characteristics.

Characteristic Full sample

Gender:

Female 33 80.4

Male 8 19.5

Educational background:

High school graduate 14 34.1

Bachelor degree 18 43.9

Post-graduate 9 21.9

Children

34 82.9

Employment:

Housewife 21 51.2

Self-employed 6 14.6

Civil servant 5 12.1

Teacher 2 4.8

Employee 5 12.1

Student 2 4.8

Ethnicity:

Javanese 19 46.3

Sundanese 8 22.2

Padang 4 9.7

Bugis 3 7.3

Melayunese 5 12.1

Betawi 2 4.8

Have thought a divorce

23 56.0

Duration of marriage (years):

1 – 10 19 46.3

11 – 20 10 24.3

21 – 30 11 26.8

What problems have you faced in the last 3 months?:

Gadget addiction 14 34.1

Economic 10 24.3

Communication 17 41.4

Conflict with husband/wife or extended family 11 26.8

Parenting 8 19.5

Infidelity 6 14.6

Verbal or physical abuse 4 9.7

Mental Health 12 29.2

Are this problems happened during pandemic Covid-19?

10 24.3

If Not, is the pandemic worsened the problems?

15 36.5

Note .N = 30 participants

Reflects the number and percentage of participants answering “yes” to

this question.

There are 5 missin

data of participants.

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Table 2: Categorization of Marital Satisfaction and

Divorce Intention.

Category

Divorce Intention Category

Low Moderate High

n % n % n %

Low

2 4.87 7 17.0 1 2.4

Moderate

6 14.6 17 41.4 0 3.33

High

5 12.9 3 7.31 0 0.00

3.5 Correlation between Marital

Satisfaction and Divorce Intention

Table 5 presents the correlation data between the

two variables. The results show a correlation

between marital satisfaction and divorce intention,

r(39) = -.414 p<.01. The two variables were

negatively correlated. This result shows that marital

satisfaction predicts divorce intentions. If marital

satisfaction is low, then divorce intentions are high.

Table 5: Correlation between marital satisfaction and

divorce intention.

Variable

SD R Sig.

1. Marital

Satisfaction

43.29 12.44

2. Divorce

Intention

108.49 28.0 -.414 .007

3.6 Correlation between Divorce

Intention and Socia-demographic

Characteristics

A Chi-square test is used to determine the socio-

demographic characteristics associated with divorce

intention. The characters included in the chi-square

test are gender, education level, occupation,

ethnicity, number of children, duration of marriage,

and urge for divorce.

The Chi-square test results found that gender,

ethnicity, education level, occupation, duration

married, and the urge to divorce did not predict the

divorce intention. In contrast, the number of children

predicts the occurrence of divorce intention, X

(160,

N = 41) = 174.54, p < .05.

4 DISCUSSION

The COVID-19 pandemic, which is a period of

crisis, impacts the family's condition as a whole

(Panzeri et al., 2020; Spinelli et al., 2020; Overall et

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257

al., 2021). Previous research (Bradley et al., 2020)

states that the pandemic has disrupted family life

worldwide, violence in families, and the increasing

number of divorces (Mazzaa et al., 2020). Stanley

and Markman (2020) also found that crises affect

intimate relationships. Prime et al., (2020) show that

families have a responsibility to protect their spouses

and all family members from distractions and fears

due to the uncertain situation. Individuals with high

satisfaction in relationships have less impact on

social restrictions. If couples cannot manage

negative emotions well, such as stress and fatigue, it

will affect their psychological condition and

relationships.

In this period, the family faced the challenge of

spending more time at home. The problem that often

occurs is that families tend to find it challenging to

balance work with family because they did work,

school, and other activities at home, so it is not easy

to set boundaries between work and family. As a

result, families are more easily tired physically,

emotionally, and psychologically. Fatigue

experienced also can trigger conflict. Conflicts that

occur continuously will trigger the couple to want to

end the marriage or divorce.

A Chi-square test uses to find out the relationship

between demographic variables and divorce

intention. The results found no relationship between

the divorce intention with gender, ethnicity,

occupation, last education, and duration of time of

marriage. The participants do not consider the socio-

demographic conditions as the reason to divorce

intention. Furthermore, most of the participants were

women who became housewives want a divorce

with a relatively varied level of education ranging

from high school to post-graduate. This result

indicates the role of education in the emergence of

divorce intentions. Education provides opportunities

to improve mindsets, change behaviour, and bring

new perceptions. A high level of education makes a

person more rational in decision-making, but this

matter did not happen in this study (Lontaan &

Kusmiyati, 2014 in (Wijayanti, 2021)).

The duration of marriage does not guarantee the

couple's integrity; 11 out of 21 (42%) participants

with a marriage duration of more than ten years

wanted a divorce. Meanwhile, participants with a

duration of marriage of fewer than ten years are

more likely to file a divorce suit. This result is in

line with previous research (Wijayanti, 2021), which

found that couples filed 44% of divorce cases with a

marriage age of fewer than five years, and 11% of

couples with a marriage duration of more than

fifteen years wanting a divorce. The causes of

divorce that occur in the early years of marriage are

incompatibility, values differences, and personality

characteristics differences. In contrast to couples

with a longer marriage duration, the causes of

divorce that arise are due to problems such as

boredom, raising children, slowly changing different

interests and attitudes (Amato & Previti, 2004). At

the beginning of marriage, couples are expected to

overcome problems such as balancing family and

work, building social relationships, distribution in

household tasks, communication and conflict

resolution, and financial problems (Risch et al.,

2003). Couples who can overcome these problems

will grow more resilient.

While the number of children is known to be

related to the divorce intention, this result

contradicts previous research (Wijayanti, 2021),

which found that the number of children was not a

consideration for couples to divorce. Other studies

have found that the absence of children is related to

the cause of divorce (Matondang, 2014). Parents are

hoping for children because, with their presence,

marriage becomes complete. Couples tend to

conflict more often if they do not have children, and

wives often become victims.

Regarding problems during the pandemic,

participants chose more than one type of problem

that triggered the desire to divorce. This shows

that the causes of the urge to divorce are very

complex, not only based on one problem. The most

chosen problems by the participants were

communication, gadget addiction, mental health

problems, and conflict with spouses, children, and

extended family. According to (Amato & Previti,

2004), the cause of divorce is more than one. The

most chosen causes are infidelity, incompatibility,

addiction, living apart, lack of communication, and

personality problems. Other studies that support the

complexity of the causes of divorce have found a

lack of commitment, cheating, and frequent conflicts

to cause the desire for divorce (Scott et al., 2013).

Participants choose communication as one of the

problems that trigger the desire to divorce (46%). In

line with this research, according to (Rijavec

KlobuČar & SimoniČ, 2017), the lack of

communication between partners is the cause of

divorce. Type of lack of communication was lack of

conversations in the family, misunderstandings in

receiving information and cues, unwillingness to

listen to each other, and personality

misunderstandings. Communication between

partners is essential because it can increase the

connectedness of the couple. Lack of

communication impacts closeness, so couples move

ICPsyche 2021 - International Conference on Psychological Studies

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away from each other, which further strengthens the

desire for divorce.

The limitation of this research is the inclusion

criteria. The criteria for participating in this study

are clients who have attended counselling sessions

or consultations with psychologists or counsellors on

marital problems, so researcher’s do not yet know

the level of their divorce intention. In contrast,

previous research measures divorce intention on

participants who come to the religious court to file a

divorce petition where the intention to divorce must

be high (Afshani et al., 2020).

In addition, the small size number of research

which was only 41 participants, so it is limited for

generalization on a larger population. During the

data collection process, several participants who met

inclusion criteria refused to fill out the questionnaire

because they felt the research topic was sensitive and

the questions could remind them of bad experiences

during their marriage. Therefore, the issue of

marriage is still a sensitive topic to discuss in

Indonesia. This study is preliminary, and there will

be another study.

Gender imbalance is also a weakness in this

study. The participants of this study consisted of 33

women and 8 men. This unbalanced number is

because the participants who fill the questionnaire

are not couples but husbands or wives who consult

about their marital problems. Most were women.

The counsellors or psychologists who became our

mediators in helping distribute the questionnaires to

their clients stated that more women or wives who

did counselling on marital problems experienced and

had more acquiescence to fill out the questionnaires.

Another limitation of this research is the

instruments adaptation process. The divorce

intention scale is an adaptation from a previous

study in Iran. This scale was used to measure the

divorce intention of couples who have filed a

divorce suit so that there are items that may not

suitable for the participants in this study who still

intend to divorce. This can be seen from the number

of couples who answered Yes, but the categorization

results were mainly in the moderate category, so the

probability of marriage to save was higher. In

addition, researchers have not gone through all the

ideal processes in adapting the divorce intention

scale, such as the absence of re-back translation, so

it is recommended that adaptation be carried out

according to the more ideal stages.

The predominance of this study is using the

Theory of Planned-Behavior (TPB) to predict

divorce intentions from two factors: internal factors

that make individual couples want to divorce, such

as perceptions of marital conflicts they have faced.

Secondly, external factors in which husbands or

wives think about the impact or consequences of

receiving negative stigma in divorcees from their

families or relatives (parents, extended family, and

relatives) (Ardian et al., 2018).

Another advantage of this research is that 41

participants come from different ethnic groups in

Indonesia, such as Javanese, Sundanese,

Minangnese, Bugisnese, Betawinese, and

Melayunese. This study also categorizes the most

common marital problems during the COVID-19

pandemic, from communication problems, gadget

addiction, conflict with wife/husband and extended

family, and mental health. These topics can be used

as training themes to improve the quality of

marriage and prevent divorce during the pandemic.

Another strength of this study is selecting criteria

for participants who have done marital consultations

or counselling to psychologists, counsellors, or

religious leaders aimed at early detection of

divorce intentions and identifying marital

satisfaction experienced by participants during the

COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, researchers and

other stakeholders still have high hopes to make

programs to improve the quality of marriage and

prevent divorce. This is different from the research

of (Ardian et al., 2018), which examines

interventions given to husbands or wives who have

filed a divorce petition to the religious court. After

being given the intervention, there was no

significant change. Participants still have a high

divorce intention. This is possible because they had

a high intention to divorce from the beginning, so

that when the intervention was given, it was difficult

to get a change. So the government or other

stakeholders need to pay more attention to married

couples who have vulnerabilities in their marriage

who still have an excellent opportunity to change

after being given an intervention.

5 CONCLUSION

The conclusions of this study are (1) there is a

significant relationship between marital satisfaction

and the intention to divorce. When marital

satisfaction is low, divorce intention high. (2) The

demographic characteristic related to the intention to

divorce is the number of children. Meanwhile, other

variables such as gender, educational background,

employment, ethnicity, duration of marriage are not

related to the divorce intention. Theoretical

suggestions for further research are to adapt the

Preliminary Study: Does Marital Satisfaction Predict Divorce Intention during Covid-19 Pandemic?

259

divorce intention scale according to the ideal stage,

using the same instrument to measure the divorce

intention in couples who have filed for divorce in the

religious court in Indonesia, examine factors other

than marital satisfaction to predict divorce intention,

increases the number of participants, and examines

couples (husband and wife).

Practical advice to the government and other

stakeholders is to provide psychoeducation for three

different targets in Indonesia. The first target is

couples who are likely to divorce with various

marital problems by providing structured training to

improve marriage quality and prevent divorce. The

topics should include preparing for a couples mental

health, practical communication skills in marriage,

and the types of marital problems that can trigger

conflicts in marriage, such as gadget addiction, and

how to prevent or solve them. Another target is

people who have entered the age of marriage by

providing pre-marital education through schools and

religious affairs offices. The second target is young

couples who have just entered the marriage stage

under five years. At this stage, the couple is still in

the adaptation stage—training topics are conflict

management. The third target is, couples with a

marriage age above ten years' training topics are

education to maintain marriage quality in old age.

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