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Phenomenology of divorce in Kosovo for the period between 2004-2014
Ferdi Kamberi
Ministry of Local Government Administration, sociologist, Kosovo
Adem Shala
Ministry of Justice, Psychologist and sociologist, Kosovo
Abstract. Family is considered as a nucleus, cell of the society, which is created by the sexual union of two partners (heterosexual) - marriage with the purpose of biological reproduction, approved by the society. Divorce is the opposite of marriage, it represents a social and legal problem, and is part of the society itself. This phenomenon is being considered as one of the oldest, old as humanity itself. In Kosovo, as in other parts of the world, divorce exists from very old times, and it was passed from a generation to another and still remains one of the social problems of Kosovo society. In the past this phenomenon was less present in our society because of political, economical social and cultural circumstances. After year 1999 we see that number of cases of divorce grow in comparison with previous years. The data taken from different researches and studies show that in year 2004, in Kosovo there were 16.989 marriages and 1.293 cases of divorce, so with 7.6% at national level, whereas the average age of divorced people is 29.5% women ans 31.8% men. Some of the factors that have influenced the growth/development of divorce are: transition period, crisis of the system of values, socio-economical factors, migration and immigration, emancipation of women, and other factors. The consequences of divorce are: individual, familial, economical, cultural and in general - social consequences. Therefore, this study does analyze the phenomenology of divorce in Kosovo in the period between 2004-2014 years, causes and consequences.
Keywords: family; marriage; divorce; causes; consequence; cultural; urban; rural etc.
UDC 316.36 LCC Subject Category: HQ811 -960.7
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22178/pos.17-12
Introduction
One of the major problems of postmodern society is the phenomenon of divorce, which affects directly in the change of the structure of the family. Divorce, as a social phenomenon, nowadays have higher rate than ever because of a range of factors. Also Kosovo society has faced this phenomenon from ancient time through custom law which have prevailed until late. But, after year 1999, after the end of conflict in Kosovo, with the emancipation of women, her empowerment, her role in the society, and other, have made women more independent. Along with this progress, we can see that from 2004 to 2014 were increases and decreases of cases of divorce influenced by different factors. Transition period, transition from mechanical to organic solidarity, socio-economical factors, marital problems between couples are just some of many causes of divorce
in Kosovo society. The consequences are more severe when we take in consideration that Kosovo as a new country, still needs infusions, as it lacks legal infrastructure, constructions and up to financial problems. Also, there is lack of rehabilitation centers, shelters, while existing ones does not have necessary requirements for sheltering for a long period. Regarding the consequences they are lack of social integration, stigmatization, health issues, children's suffering etc. By looking at the role and importance of divorce in Kosovo society, the goal of this work is to offer answers to these questions such:
1. What was the position of divorce throughout the years 2004-2014.
2. What are the causes and consequences of divorce.
3. What specific actions we have to take to reduce cases of divorce.
In this work we are going to analyze divorce and its position in Kosovo society, with the special focus to study the duration of marriage in Kosovo, divorce by age, gender, location and also divorce by number of children.
The methodology
The methodology practiced in this study was: the content analysis method, whose aim was to analyze the content of the thesis of divorce in society. The method of comparison was the method used in this study through this method we have made a comparison between Kosovo and certain other countries regarding this phenomenon. Also, this method has been used for comparisons between years 2004 and 2014 for divorce in Kosovo by gender, age, location, and duration of marriage, as well as other elements related to the phenomenon in question. Another method has been used was the statistical method which been used to analyze the percentage of divorce. But, as the main method of this study was the quantitative method. As the tool within this survey we used the questionnaire was. In this study 100 respondents has participated all selected randomly. The age of respondents was 18 years and above, as for the gender of participants, 58.1% were female and 49.1% male.
General results
In general, divorce in Kosovo society has increased significantly compared to previous periods (before 1999). In 2004 it was 7.6 % and in 2014 was same 7.6 %>. The year that has had the highest number of cases of divorce in Kosovo was year 2007 with 9.3 %. Marriages that end in divorce in Kosovo, mostly do not last more than 2 years. The average age of divorced women is 2534, while average age of divorced men is 30-34. Regarding the ratio on children and divorce, divorce of couples without children leads with around 65%, while 9.1% for divorced couples with one child only and for divorced couples with two children is 12.6 %. Leading municipality with highest number of divorced couples in year 2005 was the municipality of Pristina with a percentage of 10.1 % in year 2014 the leading municipality of Ferizaj with 9.9 %. This in fact reflects the divorce as a social phenomenon that has already started in the remote rural areas that once were not remarkable for such a thing. The main causes of divorce are problems such - conflicts between
the couples with 21 %>, adultery with 19.6 %>, the period of transition with 14.7 %, socio-economic problems with 12.9%, the emancipation of women with 9.7 %, domestic violence with 9.7%, phenomena pathological 3.2 %>, the impact of media with 3.2 %>, not having children with 1.6% and other factors with 4.2 %. But the consequences of divorce in Kosovo society are: depression with 24 %, stigmatization in the society with same, 24 %, lack of social integration with 21 %, the other consequences with 16 % stress with 13 % and health problems with 2 %. In general, in order to minimize this phenomenon, there is need for social awareness, on the question: To save the marriage and reduce the number of divorces you think the state should to: a) To amend the family law; b) To establish a law on family values; c) To start a new curriculum at schools about family; d) To establish an education program for people who want or plan to marry, the responses were: a) To amend the family law with 8.1%; b) To establish a law on family values with 16.1%; c) To start a new curriculum at schools about family with 49.1 %; d) To establish an education program for people who want or plan to marry 33.9 %.
Phenomenology of divorce
Issues concerning family, marriage and divorce are issues that have sparked an unusual, high interest for researches of social sciences. This is mainly because family is the primary cell of socialism, is the nucleus and the structure of the society, without which the society cannot survive/exist. According to Talcott Parsons, family is considered to be "the factory that produces human personalities [16]. From this quoting we can conclude that today, family is accepted as "an universal social institution, inside which different processes are developed such biological, educational and also social, economical and cultural [19]. Analyzing the role of the family in the society, marriage always has been most important institution of the family, therefore also historically marriage has had very important role in family functions. While divorce is a contrary process to the marriage respectfully to the family. Divorce in many early civilizations is seen as something not good even though it is allowed by some social norms/rules, however the initiators of this process were male. However, with the evolution of the society, social changes and developments, we have the drafting of the legisla-
tion, where for the first time ever both genders have the right to divorce. Hence, "laws for innocent divorce were declared in some countries by mid of 1960, since then many countries have followed this practice, although the details vary from one case to another [8]. This implies that although the divorce have been out of fashion in many countries, it was regulated by written and sometime also unwritten forms, even as a social phenomenon has existed ages before. Today this phenomenon is allowed in almost of countries, as it is seen within the human rights and freedom, with the exception of two countries such Vatican and Philippines, while Malta have legalized it on 2011. Among Albanians, divorce existed long time ago, but it was regulated by the customary law (CLR) which custom was inherited from one generation to generation up to nowadays. However, according to CLR, in many articles/paragraphs is it specified that husband have the right to divorce his wife for many different reasons, even for the reason if she goes to pay visit to her family without husband's knowledge or his approval, also in case she is infertile and other reasons which today sound very primitive. Today, in a globalized world when the humanity has reached the highest peaks of developments in art, science, technology and informatics, we also are witness of crucial changes in the family structure. We also can highlight that we have "higher number of single parents, mixes families created due to the re-marriages etc [20], also many other structural changes with great impact in family planning and orientation for the future. Divorce, today is a great issue at the end of the marriages, as results of which we see consequences in women and children. In logical terms "divorce means the end of a marriage, in other words is suspension of duties and legal which derives from marriage and choice of relationship between two persons. From the legal aspect, divorce is a right of men and women, but in itself divorce is a social problem which bears its consequences [11]. In other words, divorce is considered as the end of the institution of marriage, present in almost all cultures (expect Vatican and Philippines). Studies show that "the average life of divorces people is lower than of married people, study also show those who were unhappy in the marriage but stayed married, they had more chances to become happy or happier in next 5 (five) coming years in comparison with the divorced ones. After being diagnosed with cancer, married people are more likely to recover than
divorced ones, this shows that the emotional trauma caused by divorce do have a long lasting impact on the physical health. Also, in case of divorce, men and women suffer more emotionally, although, studies have come to the conclusion that women suffer more than men [3]. So, in other words, this issue isn't only seen as a right of the individual to suspend or to end the marriage, but also is seen as a stressful process and have impact on one's own personality and relationship between the individual and the society.
Stages and types of divorce
The phenomenon of divorce leaves behind a number of consequences on the individuals affected, the consequences are more severe when children are involved. However, according to some studies there are different stages and types of divorce. According to Paul Bohannan there are six so called stations or stages of divorce that will face the couples when divorcing [7]:
1. Emotional divorce - which is the deterioration of marriage, increase of tension among the couples which leads toward separation.
2. Legal divorce - this stage has to do with legal end of marriage, so divorce.
3. Economical divorce - has to do with division of common assets and properties.
4. Parental divorce - is linked with custodial rights of parents on children and their right to meet them in regular basis.
5. Social divorce - has to do with the changes in their social circle (family, friends, colleagues).
6. Psychological divorce - is when the individual cuts off all previous connections/relations and lives a solitary life on its own.
These stations or stages of divorce in the light of the sociology reflects the fact that during the process of divorce couples go through some different phases such ; social, psychological, cultural, economical, etc, the truth is that also the children involved in the process go through the same phases. Every phase/stage has its own characteristics which appear before and after the divorce. While before divorce the couple face tense situations, after divorce comes up other problems such housing problem, child custody, social integration, mental health, employment etc. While talking about types of divorce there are some types of divorce [11]:
1. Non-fault divorce, end of marriage doesn't sick for the guilty one or the proof of guiltiness. In other words, this type of divorce doesn't seek for the guilty but deals with facts to reach a solution.
2. Fault divorce - until before the year 1975 in many countries, in order to place a request for divorce it was mandatory to bring proofs from both sides, in some countries this is still valid, such in New York, they still want to find out which of the couples was guilty for break of marriage.
3. "Summarizing" Uncontested divorce - is type of divorce when couple reach certain mutual agreement(s) to end the marriage, for example when a marriage is arranged based in an interest such personal profit, financial or to gain a citizenship etc.
4. Uncontested divorce - is the case when the couple reaches an agreement with or without lawyer.
5. Collaborative divorce - is becoming more popular model of divorce lately, this is a type of divorce when couples agree to negotiate a solution through lawyers, with intermediation also with the help of an neutral expert. The parties involved often are authorized to reach their decisions based on their personal needs and interests.
6. Intermediated divorce - is when, the parties engage a lawyer or the lawyer can be appointed by the judicial authorities.
Furthermore, according to the researcher Emily Doskow, there are also other types of divorce, such: "divorce by arbitration this is when the couple agree that the Judge (referee) to reach a decision and they should accept it in full, and also about the divorce of same-sex couples to be treated same as heterosexual couples [5], which is some states of the USA where banned. Based in these data we can see that above mentioned types of divorce are present in Kosovo society. Although, until recent years and even nowadays does exist the economical divorce or knows also as "alimentation right" which means in case of divorce with no reason, the wise men would take decision that divorced wife to "take property of husband such as: bedroom furniture's, golden jewellery, clothes and a lonesome amount of money to cover the cost of marriage/wedding [8]. But today it is regulated by legal act with main purpose the basic care for children.
Divorce in Kosovo in the period between 2004-2014
Divorce as a social phenomenon still keep being a challenge for Kosovo society, especially in last year's, where we can see from the statistics that families in Kosovo are going through a transition period. Divorce itself, beside physical separation it has also social, psychological and emotional separation, which are manifested in different forms and ways. In fact, in Kosovo divorce is regulated law, in particular Law on family, article No 68 own divorce where it says: "(1) Marriage can be ended with divorce only upon an official court decision (2) One of the spouses, with a mutual agreement may submit request for divorce by fill-in a claim to the respective court institution. (3) The right to file a claim for divorce can be passed to the heirs, so the heirs can continue with the divorce process to verify the divorce procedure. (4) If one of the spouses files a claim for divorce, and in the course of divorce process, before the end of trial, the other spouse declares that he/she doesn't have any objection on the credibility of the claim, than shall be deemed that the spouses have submitted the claim for divorce with a mutual agreement [12, Article 68].
This law does specify the right of involved parties to initiate the divorce procedure, attributing the initiation within the human right and freedom. While, on the other hand, the data from many studies and researches especially the ones from the Kosovo Agency of Statistics (KAS) points out that occasionally this phenomenon has its ups and downs in numbers. But also we must not forget the fact that a significant number of data published by KAS, attributed to marriages and divorces out of Kosovo, which are specified as a whole, although the phenomenon of divorce is very spread-out lately. Data from Kosovo Agency of Statistics for the period from 2004-2014 reflects the situation as seen in the Table 1.
As we can see from the above table, the data for the period from 2004 to 2014 (we have no official data before 2004 as the Kosovo institution were still being consolidated. Therefore, based on the Table 1, we can see that in the period between 2004 and 2014, the year 2006 is being considered as the year with the highest number of divorce cases, by 9.3 %.
In other hand, in the last days we have less cases of divorce, even though the divorce rate still remains high when taking into consideration the number of habitants.
Table 1 - Reflects years, marriages and divorces and the percentage of divorces [1]
Year Marriages Divorces Divorce, % Divorce by No of population
2004 16989 1293 7.6 13.1
2005 15732 1445 9.1 10.8
2006 15825 1480 9.3 10.6
2007 16824 1558 9.2 10.7
2008 17950 1026 5.7 17.4
2009 20209 1555 7.6 12.9
2010 18289 1453 7.9 12.5
2011 17343 1469 8.4 11.8
2012 17169 1328 7.7 12.9
2013 14664 1040 7.0 14.1
2014 16239 1243 7.6 13.0
This fact is proved with the data taken for the period from 2004 until 2012, where we find an increase, and for the period from year 2012 to 2014 this percentage remains the same.
Divorce by age and gender
Divorce as a phenomenon has special characteristics, so in order to better study this phenomenon, we should analyze closely the parameters by
age and gender. Studies conducted in Kosovo shows that the major number of divorced couples are ones who have entered in marriage in younger age. Average age of divorced women is from 25-34 years and for men from 30-34 years, which corresponds with the facts taken from the Kosovo Agency of Statistics related to the percentages of divorced men and women so we have these Table 2.
Table 2 - Percentage o : divorcec men and women by gender and age in years (Idem)
Gender 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Women 23.0 24.3 27.8 26.3 25.7 23.8 24.0 24.9 23.0 25.2
Men 24.5 25.3 26.9 25.9 25.9 23.9 24.1 23.9 24.7 25.3
Average 23.75 24.8 27.35 25.8 25.8 23.85 24.05 24.4 23.85 25.25
As we can see, these facts show that while in 2005 the percentage of divorced couples was 23.75%, (23% female and 24.5% male), the figures in 2014 increased to 25.25% (25.2% female
Divorce by length (duration) of marriage
When talking about the phenomenon of divorce in Kosovo society, it have to be noted that studies indicates that women who enter the marriage at early age they also end up earlier with break of marriage alias divorce, which tells us that the trend of marriage does not last long. Data derived tells that modern society have significant problems regarding divorce. According to a study by City Index, the marriages in modern society does not last long. This Agency shows the data trends
and 25.3% male) which shows growing trend of divorce in society. However, from all these data, the year 2007 marks the highest divorce with 27.35 % (27.8 % female and 26.9 % male).
on duration of marriage in some countries, as follows (Figure 1).
This chart reflects the fact that marriages does not last long, while the marriages with longest duration are in Italy, and with shortest duration are in Qatar. For Kosovo we have data as seen below (Figure 2).
The given data indicates that in year 2015, for the first year, duration of marriages in Kosovo was 10.3 %, whereas in 2014 this has been increased to 11.8 %. While the duration of marriage for the second year of 2005 was 12.9 %, while in year 2014 this figure has dropped down to 12.0%.
Figure 1 - Duration of marriage by years and percentage of divorce in some developed countries [13]
Figure 2 - Percentage of duration of marriages in Kosovo in years for the period between years 2004-2014 [1]
The dropdown we can see also when we compare the third year of duration of the marriages, while in year 2005 it was 11.9 %, in year 2014 it dropped down to 9.7 %. As we can see from data, there is a slight decrease in the percentage of divorce by the duration of marriage. However, what concerns us is the fact that in most of the cases, the marriages does not last longer than one or two years. This becomes more severe when we consider the age structure, which is between 25-34 years for both genders.
broader sense. Among which the children are the most affected and who keen to blame themselves as they consider to be the cause of divorce of parents. However, the data taken from the Kosovo Agency of Statistics supports this fact showing that in year 2004, the most of divorced couples had no children, while in 2014 it shows that this hasn't changed that much, in this year the rate of divorced couples without children was 65%, rate of divorced couples with one child was 9/1% and with two children 12.6 % [2].
Divorce by number of children
Divorce is a social phenomenon that involves not only the married couples but also the family in
Divorce by location
Divorce as a social problem isn't present only in a specific region, but in all region and cultures. In
Kosovo, divorce historically has been seen mostly more present in urban areas, but the fact shows the opposite. Based on the data taken from KAS, it shows that in the 10 years period, this trend has changed a lot, and we see that divorce was
Based on this chart, we can see that divorce cases by locations has changed a lot in this decade. While in 2005, Pristina municipality was leading with 10.1%, in the last years 2013 and 2014, we have other municipalities such Mitrovica with 11.3 % and Ferizaj with 9.9 %. In fact this reflects the divorce as a social phenomenon's present in Kosovo's society also in very rural areas, which haven't been affected previously.
Divorce as a trend imitating celebrities
The sociologist's calls to pay attention on the divorce as a phenomenon could be cause to the disruption of the families, as with its end up also ends the family as an institution, or as a cell of the society which is considered as "sacred". Therefore, while in the Kosovo society even after divorce, divorces people re-marry again, so, the divorce doesn't have a great impact in the society as a phenomenon. In other cultures, especially in the western countries, divorce is at high cost, where all the wealth is being divided in two parts, and this is why is called "economical divorce". But, lately we have observed something interesting in our society, this is imitation of the (anti) values promoted by movies, we are talking about imitating the celebrities from Hollywood. Once Plato wrote that imitation keeps you away from the reality or from the truth. But, according to Albert Bandura "we often learn our attitudes by copying actions and approached of our social models ...[6], which indicates through the social models such as: family, peers, books, religious groups, music etc, we could accept those as role models for our behavior and actions, with no proper. In this regard, imitating such as divorce of politicians and celebrities, in Kosovo case can be considered as a tragico-comedy. Than a real
present also in rural areas. While the municipality of Pristina was leading with highest number of divorce cases, in year 2014, the leading municipality was Ferizaj municipality, which is most rural region. See the data (Table 3).
divorce. This happens much more because in the western countries celebrities marry, divorce and re-marry because of their narcissism, ageing, position in the society, adultery, jealousy, financial support, and other factors.
While, in Kosovo in many cases celebrities, the divorce much more because they have become famous than because of any real problem. In the psychological and social view divorce cases occurs as result of copying or imitating an identity which they don't possess, and this happens mostly in the societies in transition, and in small societies and wants to have so called "self-centeredness" in order to be in the center of attention. The consequences are more present in the new generations, who tent to copy their role models such celebrities (Politian's, actors, singers, etc), thus making new generations to act in the same way. Even though, the studies show that usually "children's use the imitation as a communicative tool through some main key points, though imitation serves two complementary functions: a) a cognitive function that promotes learning about the world and b) an interpersonal function that promotes sharing with others [15]. Therefore, all these will be reflecting more deeper in the crisis of Kosovo families which have already started to show symptoms of disorders.
The causes of divorce
The causes of divorce at every society can vary, although in some can be in a broader way, general causes are global ones. "A study that was done with 45.000 couples have shown that unhappy couples never give consent, they criticize a lot and are stubborn. While happy couples give consent, agree and smile [14]. These are just some of first differences that may lead to divorce.
Table 3 - Percentage of divorce by locations in years (Idem)
Gender 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Female 10.1 9.6 9.0 9.7 10.7 9.5 8.8 9.7 11.3 9.9
Male 10.1 9.6 9.0 9.7 10.7 9.5 8.8 9.7 11.3 9.9
Municipality Prishtina Prizren Prishtina Prizren M itrovica Prizren Mitrovica Ferizaj
In general, causes that can lead to divorce can be different, starting from the unfulfilled emotional needs of couples, different approach on the education, lack of understanding of their roles within the family, than lack of communication and ability to solve conflicts, etc.! Also, divorce can help so called "women's emancipation", change of internal structure of the family, males refusal to accept these changes, disputes among the couples, adultery etc. A study done in 2009 highlights that main causes of divorce could be "cultural factors" - whereas the highest percentage of divorces is higher than in the XIX century, as result of trends of the secularist, norms of liberalism and also the decrease of religious influence. Such cultural trends have influenced later in the adoption of a set of laws that allow such a thing...! Demographic factors - where statistics show that married young people are more likely to divorce. Youth, especially adolescents, may lack the level of maturity and experience to face demands and responsibilities that comes along with the marriage. Moreover, their personalities are not yet stable enough in the light of their needs. Many young people have low income, this altogether with their low level of education, can be another
risk factor that may lead to divorce. Then low income and poverty are risk factors as result of financial stress, which can often negatively affect relationship in the marriage. Another demographic factor that associates with divorce, can be single mothers who lives in very poor conditions. Mother who raise children alone, are more likely to be young and poor, thus living together before marriage, thus combining many risk factors for possible divorce...etc [4]. While, from another study conducted by Paul R. Amato & Denise Previti from The Pennsylvania State University we find that main factors of divorce are: infidelity 18.4%, Incompatibility 16.4%, drug use 9.%, growing up as a lonely person 8.2%, personality problems 7.8%, lack of communication 7.4%, physical and mental abuse 4.9%, lost of love 3.7%, unfulfilled of family duties 2.9%, employment problems 2.9%, lack of satisfaction in the marriage 2.5%, financial problems 2.0%, physical and mental diseases 2.0%, growth of personality 2.0%, intervention by the family 2.0%, immaturity 1.6%, etc [17]. In other hand, according to a survey conducted by the municipality of Pristina on divorce, the respondent's answers are here bellow (Figure 3).
Figure 3 - Causes of divorce in Kosovo's society (Quantitative research)
Based on this survey we can conclude that main causes of divorce in Kosovo's society are: Marriage problems (conflicts) with 21 %, adultery with 19.6 %, transition period with 14.7 %, Socio-economical factors with 12.9 %>, women's emancipation with 9.7 %, domestic violence with 9.7 %, pathological phenomena with 3.2 %, influence of media with 3.2 %, lack of children with 1.6 % and other with 4.20 %. This survey even with a small sample of 100 respondents, with no
doubt does reflects some interesting data, the problems among couples that last long may often end in divorce. Another element that we can observe when talking about factors of divorce is the factor of lack of children with 1.6%, which factor once upon a time was maybe the main factor of divorce in Kosovo society, and now we see that this factor still exists but with a very small percentage.
The consequences of divorce
Fear from separation can have bad effect on children, then comes the financial uncertainty, loss of the wealth that people possess, all these makes psychological consequences greater than usual. For these reasons most of couples decide to separate for a time, this decision sounds to be very good one, as the purpose of this is to reflect on the issue from a distance on the advantages and disadvantages and the future of their marriage. If the couple cannot still find a common solution then one of the couple can file a written claim for juridical protection for advising and consultant services from lawyers. There are three ways for divorce:
- The claim (or sue request in the court) for divorce after two years after separation, or
- A mutual agreement, in case both agree for divorce,
- Divorce by mutual will (with full or partial consent concerning legal and financial consequences of divorce).
After separation, most of the couples start feeling lonely, sense of guilt and regret. On this cases an emotional assistance can be provided by the psychologists and sociologists to treat such burden, but lack of an organized health insurance can be an obstacle to the access to such services, includ-
ing the social labelling and also stigmatization from the society if one's seek such help from psychologists and sociologists. In other words, based on some researches, consequences of divorce can be divided in two main categories: a) adult consequences and b) children consequences. On the first group, divorcees have worse physical and psychological health. Divorce has negative monetary consequences for women but less for men which can also have impact on the decision-making Economic security and social support reduce the well-being effects of divorce. While, on the children consequences, the study shows that children of the divorce, have more material well-being deficits, poorer schooling outcomes, more problems with their behaviour and crime, poorer physical and mental health, less stable own relationships, weaker relationships with parents and grandparents [9]. This study does corresponds with the research conducted by the municipality of Pristina, which one on the question about which are the consequences of divorce, the respondents have had different opinions, though most of them mentioned that stigmatization of the society and depression are among greatest consequences, not excluding the children suffering. The research have given these results, see below (Figure 4).
Figure 4 - Consequences of divorce in Kosovo society
The consequences of divorce are seen in the light of stigmatization in Kosovo society, this is because of the fact that usually stigmatization does happen in homogenic societies more than in het-erogenic ones, in small communities when everyone knows each other well. But the conse-
quences about which all scientists, social psychologists and sociologists warns and highlights the most, are children consequences who often put blame on themselves as the cause of divorce of their parents.
Furthermore, some studies have pointed on children's reaction by age groups. The study shows that "during divorce children may present multiple emotional reactions. They express their frustration with different symptoms of behavior such is denial, silence, turning into themselves, fatigue, sense of guilt, hostile actions, state of panic, alarming and confusion. The process of divorce for them is so stressful, only parents can help to reduce or minimize stress, and escalation of the situation in front of children [18].
Conclusions
Based on what was said so far we can draw conclusions that divorce is one of the most common phenomena of modern society. Divorce is also present in Kosovo society as well, and year after year we see a notable increase. In year 2004, divorce rate was 7.6%, but also in 2014 the rate was the same, 7.6%. Year 2006 had the highest rate of 9.3%. Studies have shown that duration of marriages in Kosovo is 2-3 years, so we can tell
that couple enter and leave marriage at early stages of their lives. While before divorce was more present in urban areas now we see that divorce is present also in rural areas as well. The phenomenon of divorce in Kosovo society is affected by a large number of factors among which are marital conflicts, violence and socio-economical factors. But, when talking about the consequences, the study has shown that women and children are most affected by the consequences of divorce such: mental, health, physical and social consequences. In general, divorce an social phenomenon even is being considered as a human right, in the psychological and social aspect it does presents a major problem which directly affect the existence of families, which is considered as the cell of the society. Our researches have shown there is a need for a change on the actual law on family, also a need to include a subject on family in the curricula in the schools also about its role in the society, in order to reduce the number of cases of divorce.
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© F. Kamberi, A. Shala
Received 2016-11-29, Accepted 2016-12-20, Published online 2016-12-24
Феноменология развода в Косово за период 2004-2014 гг.
Ferdi Kamberi
Министерство местного самоуправления, социолог, Косово
Adem Shala
Министерство юстиции, психолог, социолог, Косово
Аннотация. Семья рассматривается как ядро, ячейка общества, которая создается половым союзом двух партнеров (гетеросексуальных) - браком, с целью биологического воспроизводства, одобренным обществом. Развод является противоположностью брака, он представляет собой социальную и правовую проблему и является частью самого общества. Это явление рассматривается как одно из самых старых, оно старо, как само человечество. В Косово, как и в других странах мира, развод существует с очень давних времен, он переходил из поколения в поколение и до сих пор остается одной из социальных проблем общества Косово. В прошлом, это явление меньше присутствовало в нашем обществе из-за политических, экономических социальных и культурных обстоятельств. После 1999 года, мы видим, что число случаев развода растет в сравнении с предыдущими годами. Данные, взятые из различных исследований, показывают, что в 2004 году, в Косово было 16 989 браков и 1 293 случаев развода, что составляло 7,6 % на национальном уровне, в то время как средний возраст разведенных людей составлял 29,5 % у женщин и 31,8 % у мужчин. Некоторыми факторами, оказывающими влияние на рост числа разводов, являются: переходный период, кризис системы ценностей, социально-экономические факторы, миграция и иммиграция, эмансипация женщин и другие факторы. Последствиями развода являются: индивидуальные, семейные, экономические, культурные и обще-социальные последствия. Таким образом, это в статье анализируется феноменология развода в Косово в период 2004-2014 гг., их причины и последствия.
Ключевые слова: семья; брак; развод; причины; последствия; культурный; городской; сельский. УДК 316.36 Ltt Subject Category: HQ811 -960.7 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22178/pos.17-12_
© F. Kamberi, A. Shala
Статья получена 29.11.2016, принята 20.12.2016, опубликована online 24.12.2016
