Impacts of Domestic Conflicts on Family and Marital Life regarding Cultural Norms

Abstract

Marriage is the foundation of family life which serves as an essential institution of society and pivotal element of one’s personal and social life. This research aims to study the role of social and cultural norms related to family and marital life that result in arising conflicts. The patterns of marriage followed in research area and the norms associated with marriage and gender roles is mentioned in detail. Furthermore, the family and kinship pattern being a basis of each household which directly influence all the individuals is also discussed. The detail categorization of conflicts and their effects on domestic life of people is featured to comprehensively understand the connection of socio-cultural norms and domestic conflicts. For data collection, qualitative research methods such as interviewing, case study method, focus group discussion and rapport building techniques were employed. The findings of the study demonstrate that norms related to gender roles, honor and male preferences play a major role in creating conflicts. Financial constraints, violence, family pressure, specific attitudes related to gender and culturally expected behavioral patterns seemed to be the root cause of conflicts among families and spouses. The domestic conflicts affect the socialization and education of children, family environment and resulted in increased divorce rate, whereas a rare case of suicide is also reported.