TY - JOUR
T1 - Swimming against the tide
T2 - Characteristics of muslim-arab women in Israel who initiated divorce
AU - Kulik, Liat
AU - Klein, Dana
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - The present study compared Muslim-Arab women in Israel who initiated divorce (n545) with those who stayed in stressful marital relationships (n546). Based on an ecological approach and using a cross-sectional design, we explored the differences between the two groups with regard to the following variables: personal resources (education, paid employment, hardiness, styles of coping with stressful situations, and egalitarian gender role ideology), spousal variables (evaluation of marital difficulties), and environmental resources (formal and informal support from the environment). The findings revealed that levels of education and rates of participation in the labor force were higher among the divorced women than among those who stayed in stressful marriages. In addition, the divorced women had a more egalitarian gender role ideology and tended to adopt problem-focused styles for coping with stressful situations, whereas the married women tended to combine emotion-focused and problem-focused styles. The main difficulty experienced by the divorced women was the husbands' violence, whereas the married women primarily experienced difficulties related to the husbands' alcoholism or drug addiction. In light of the findings, practical recommendations are presented.
AB - The present study compared Muslim-Arab women in Israel who initiated divorce (n545) with those who stayed in stressful marital relationships (n546). Based on an ecological approach and using a cross-sectional design, we explored the differences between the two groups with regard to the following variables: personal resources (education, paid employment, hardiness, styles of coping with stressful situations, and egalitarian gender role ideology), spousal variables (evaluation of marital difficulties), and environmental resources (formal and informal support from the environment). The findings revealed that levels of education and rates of participation in the labor force were higher among the divorced women than among those who stayed in stressful marriages. In addition, the divorced women had a more egalitarian gender role ideology and tended to adopt problem-focused styles for coping with stressful situations, whereas the married women tended to combine emotion-focused and problem-focused styles. The main difficulty experienced by the divorced women was the husbands' violence, whereas the married women primarily experienced difficulties related to the husbands' alcoholism or drug addiction. In light of the findings, practical recommendations are presented.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84869434689&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/jcop.20405
DO - 10.1002/jcop.20405
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AN - SCOPUS:84869434689
SN - 0090-4392
VL - 38
SP - 918
EP - 931
JO - Journal of Community Psychology
JF - Journal of Community Psychology
IS - 7
ER -