Delayed Marriages and its Socio-Psychological Consequences

Abstract

Marriage is a legal union between wife and the husband. Moreover, this is a legally approved and socially endorsed institution. In the Pakistani context, what my research also tries to explore, the institution of marriage is largely confined to child rearing, female fertility and meeting some other psychological and social outcomes of the marrying individuals. After the women get married, they are required at their conjugal households to increase children by ensuring female fertility. Also, the wife and husband try to fulfill their psychological and social needs. This study is unique in its efforts to explore the ‘age factor’ in the institution of marriage. Presently, in Pakistan, late marriage is one of the most burning issues and especially this is more so for women. In this research, I have tried to unearth late marriages and its ensuing implications on women. After they get married lately, the women face a lot of issues in their marital life. The issues are to a larger extent psychological and social. Psychologically, the women do not become content with their husbands and this may, in effect, leads to affect child rearing and female fertility which are the main objectives of the institution of marriage. This study has been conducted in G-5 and G-6 sectors in Islamabad. There, I have mainly focused on women who reside in the mentioned sectors of the capital. Also, this study is only confined to women and excludes men due to some limitations