Abstract:
Background: Marital dissolution or divorce is one of the most dramatic events that can befall in a
family. Compared to people in their first marriage, people who are currently married but have ever
been divorced have a worse self-rated health, more chronic conditions, more mobility limitations,
and more depressive symptoms. The objective of this study was to examine the determinants of
marital dissolution in Tepi and Mizan-Aman city administration.
Methods: A community based retrospective study design was conducted to assess factors
associated with marital dissolution of ever-married individuals in study area using descriptive and
inferential analysis. Multi–Stage sampling technique was used to select appropriate sample. From
the survival analysis models; the Cox-proportional hazard model was selected to identify the
factors associated with marital dissolution.
Results: About 23.9% of participants were divorced or separated from their first partners and the
mean survival time was 32 years and one month. Participants who were very unsatisfied and
unsatisfied by encouraging support, sexual compatibility, and life before marriage and giving
admiration from their partners were more exposed to divorce compared to very satisfied and
satisfied. Cox proportional hazard regression model revealed that age, partner’s education levels,
occupation, lie partner, consultancy and conflict resolution methods had significant effects on
survival time of duration of marriage. The risk of marital dissolution was significantly lower for
uneducated partners (HR=0.0.296; P=0.039), merchant (HR= 0.408; P= 0.007) and participants
who never lie their partners (HR= 0.265; P = 0.000) compared to their counterpart.
Conclusions: The findings of this study demonstrated that age group, partner’s education level,
occupation type, lie partner, getting consultancy about marriage, and conflict resolution methods
have significant effect on the survival time of marital dissolution. Participants whose age was less
than or equal to 20 year during study time was more exposed to marital dissolution than whose
age was greater than 40 years old. This implies that early marriage had significant effect on the
duration of ever-married couples. Respondents who got consultancy about the marriage was less
likely to divorce compared to participants who didn’t get consultancy
