Journal of Alzheimers Disease & Parkinsonism
Open Access

Background

Divorce is a legal term defined as the dissolution of marriage. People marry each other after having many consensus and agreements during the time of the marriage process but they decide to end their marriage legally due to various circumstances. Divorce is the dissolution of marital relations; in this process, marriage is completely broken down either in a social or legal context. Divorce is differently perceived in different cultural groups. Therefore, there are various cultural as well as psychological consequences of divorce. This study tries to explore cultural psychological dimensions and the mental health status of divorce among cross-cultural divorcee couples in Kathmandu, Nepal. The concept of divorce is traumatic in the Hindu society because of the cultural interpretation of bad fortune attached to divorced women. Moreover, the family denies cross-cultural marriage. It is the couples themselves who have to initiate and fight for marriage also take responsibility of divorce. Remarriage of divorcee girl considered problematic. The concept and importance of marriage and divorce vary largely from place to place and from community to community.

In Nepal, according to the Nepali Hindu high caste culture, the couples are made in heaven and marriages are the sacred social institution and divorce is still a social taboo [1]. She stresses that divorce is not easy for them to have a regular life as they are judged enormously and their morality is questioned highly shows series of symbolic violence to the divorcees of cross-cultural women as they mostly marry without the consent of the family due to which they normally do not have the support of their family during the process and after divorce. The cases of divorces due to cross-cultural issues have not properly analyzed in Nepal. Due to the legal, cultural and property matters, most of the married couple holds the hand forever even after their bad relation [2]. With time, there is a slight change in the concept of divorce; the current status shows that divorce in Nepal is increasing with increasing women education and empowerment [2].

The word divorce itself marks a distinct legal presence in the English language as demonstrated by the lexical entry of the word in the Oxford English Dictionary. This defines divorce as an official or legal process to end a marriage. Generally, it is the process where married partners legally separate from their matrimonial relationship. Article published on Lexpertease about the divorce law in Nepal defined the as the “dissolution of marriage”. By extension, then, to be divorced the two parties must be legally married to each other. This article examines divorce law in Nepal, identifies the grounds for filing for a divorce and details the procedures for filing [3].

Marriage refers to a legal contract and civil status, a religious, and a social practice, all of which vary by legal jurisdiction, religious doctrine, and culture. Marriage, while carrying broader connotations elsewhere across various jurisdictions, has a strictly defined constitutional context in Nepal. In Nepali civil code (2074) a marriage may be legitimatized between a man and a woman if a) Both have attained twenty years of age; they are not relatives, b)Prior matrimonial relationship of both parties does not exist; and c) Both agree to accept each other as husband and wife (Civil Code, 2074).

Nepal’s laws contain some provisions regarding divorce in Nepal. The Civil Code 2074, as the governing civil law, has made it possible for both husband and wife to get a divorce. As per the divorce law in Nepal, husband or wife cannot file for a divorce for trivial reasons. The claim for the divorce must fulfill the grounds for divorce that are mentioned in the Civil Code, 2074 otherwise the suit cannot be entertained in the courthouse [3].

Divorce has been a famous word during the past ten years in Nepal. The word meaning of divorce is known as dissolution of marriage and is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. The types of marriages are different in a different geography. In Nepal, love marriage, arrange, love-arrange (elopement) and court marriage are popular. Love-arrange marriage and elopement are more common in a cross-cultural marriage. This study investigates socio-cultural dimensions of divorce among newly divorced and separated couples of cross-cultural background in Kathmandu. Moreover, this study tries to explore cultural psychological aspects of divorce among cross-cultural divorcee people in Kathmandu.

Divorces in Nepal: Divorce is multidimensional and involves multifactor social events. It can be found in each and every society, which may be either in customary or in legal form. Basically, it occurs easily within a more open and industrial society. It is emerging as a form of new sociological events due to the pattern of socio-cultural changes by the process of modernization and simultaneously urbanization. In our context, it should be sociologically investigated. This study has been an attempt to identify the causes of divorce, which provides sociological insight to further researcher. The pattern of divorce in this study is diverse and it is found in each community even in Hindus, in which marriage is taken for life or it is for after death, therefore divorce and remarriage is not culturally and socially accepted in almost all Hindu dominant Nepalese society where nearly eighty per cent people belong to Hindu religion [4]. Divorce may give pain to someone and joy to the next one after their dissolution of marriage. Acharya has addressed the issues after the divorce people are facing some sort of problem into their life and the list of more than 18 problems is being addressed [4]. After their divorce, if anyone can’t cope with the situation they may go through the issues but what are the issues particularly Nepalese divorcee individual are facing has yet to the matter of study and this research has addressed it. The rate of divorces has been increased according to the district court of the Palpa in Nepal [5] but it has not been identified about the psychological impact of divorce in divorcee couple and crosscultural issues among the divorcee individual.

Cultural Psychology: Cultural psychology is the study of how cultures reflect and shape the psychological processes of their members. The main tenet of cultural psychology is that mind and culture are inseparable and mutually constitutive, meaning that people are shaped by their culture and their culture is also shaped by them. One of the major proponents of the field, writes, “Cultural psychology is the study of the way cultural traditions and social practices regulate, express, and transform the human psyche, resulting in less in psychic unity for humankind than in ethnic divergences in mind, self, and emotion [6]. Therefore, one who grows up in Newari culture has a different view regarding marriage-not only marriage but to see the world differently from the people who grow up in other culture called cross-cultural marriage. Due to cross-cultural marriage, one may face different types of issues such as language, behaviors, food, dress up and the festivals they celebrate in their culture [7]. From different cultural views, the marriage has been defined differently: their worldview-the perspective that individually developed from birth to now. They see things or behave on the basis of their worldview, have unique qualities and personality due to it.

Some of the cultural issues that have a great impact on their mental health status are socioeconomic class, education, caste/ethnicity, perception and belief respectively. Socioeconomic class is a significant variable in this study. Socioeconomic status supports them to stay strong in a bad situation. Upper-class family doesn’t bother whether someone goes or come into their life but it is a matter of thinking for middleclass family background; they lost someone who helps to run the family. Similarly, education is described here as a formal academic degree that the person has received from the university or any institution.

In this research, education has played a significant role in the mental health of the divorcee. Education plays a significant role in terms of hope. It gives them hope to do anything; they have the knowledge and can easily survive the situation. The next one is caste and ethnicity refer to a person belongs to which background. It is a traditional system of social stratification in which a similar caste can marry each other as per the traditional approach. In this research, inter-caste marriage is considered a major variable for divorce. Once the divorcee women remarried then the caste of that Brahmin caste will automatically fall down. People in society do not value their interest and desires which leads them towards psychosocial issues. The perception and their beliefs are also major factors which contribute on the mental health of divorcee. Different culture has different belief and perceptions, according to that perception; the way people think and get a sense towards something; they act towards the things and accept the exiting things as a true whether it is real for others or not.

Statement of problem

Marriages are socio-cultural treats of love, procreation, reciprocity and support to each other. People are getting so ease to engage in the marital relationship and instant get ready for separation. According to the research conducted by [8], education and awareness spread throughout the world about independence and empowerments, independent women are avoiding constraints of their life for the cause of freedom in their life. Different articles on divorce have focused on the causes of divorce [2,9] but this research explored the cross-cultural causes and consequences of divorce in different cultural background. The concept of divorce is not similar in different communities. Gellner and Nepali noted that the Newar women did not suffer much after divorce because their permanent husband ‘Bel’ and sun remained forever with them [10,11]. It is important to explore cross-cultural differences in mental health status and the impacts of divorce.

According to a multinational study of mental disorders, marriage and divorce, a sample of 18 illnesses were found to increase with divorce with others increasing at a rate of even up to 80 per cent [12]. What is the prevalence of mental health of divorcee individual in Nepal? There are not enough pieces of evidence regarding the mental health status of a divorcee in Nepal that is why it is very important to know that the mental health status including stress, anxiety and depression of divorcee individual in Nepal. The nature of causes differs from men to women. Occupational mobility and the situation of an agreement to the opposite sex, low age at marriage and immaturity, adjustment problems of new wives, traditional and modern expectations between the mother-in-law and sister-in-law are found as causal factors in the present study. Similarly, legal provisions for divorce support such kind spouses who are felt very uneasy to stay together in the family [13]. Social consequences are being addressed by the research conducted by Acharya but it had not addressed psychological issues which are very necessary to examine in the present time.

Multiple stakeholders (women activist and police departments) are into it to understand the causal factors for divorce and psychological impact after divorce; however, it is hard to find out enough information regarding bearing the psychological problem after divorce. Most of the research shows that female are more sufferers of divorce [14]. Because of less information regarding male psychology after divorce, the researcher has preliminary observation regarding male sufferer after divorce and therefore, interested to explore the psychological impact on both male and female. The District Court Palpa has registered 122 divorce cases in the first six months of the current fiscal year. Among those seeking divorce were 87 women and 35 men [5]. It has been identified that the number of cases has been increased this is year but yet to come that what happened to the divorcee individuals after divorce. And what causes divorce actually is still unknown. This research has explored the psychological issues among divorcee individuals of cross-cultural background in Kathmandu valley. This research has answered all these questions;

a. What are worldviews of divorcee towards themselves and divorce?

b. What are cultural factors that cause their divorce?

c. What are their different mental health status including stress, anxiety and depression?

Objective of the study

Diversity of cultural practice reflects on the variation of mental health status among different cultural background. Documentation and analysis of different mental health status among the divorcee in various cultural groups is the general objective of the study.

3.3.1 Specific objective: 1. To find out the level of stress, anxiety and depression among cross-cultural divorcees.

2. To identify the cultural issues that contributes to divorce.

3. To find out the psychological impact among different cultural divorcees.

Significance of the study

The research explored cross-cultural issues of divorce and mental health status of divorce which is very important points for the counseling intervention in the community. The researcher is a counselor and one of the major responsibilities is to aware people regarding mental health. If it can be addressed during the initial phase it can be cured immediately but if it leaves unsettle then someone may go into the disorder. This research has worth understanding the mental health problem of a divorcee in detail so that researcher can implement this into her counseling setting.

Knowing the issues, the psychological effect due to the incident could be vastly noteworthy for counselor and different stakeholders: once we understand the problem, it can be helpful to sort out a program for their mental health. Upcoming students of psychology may read the story of divorcee individual and can learn something from it. People working with cultural issues and women would benefit from it because they can understand the issues of cross-culture and its impact on human life. The study also contributes methodological uniqueness and practical implementation of findings in counseling field. It indicates further areas of explorations in the field of divorce’s mental health status.

Limitations of the study

This study cannot generalize the overall divorce situation of Nepal, because it has been conducted inside Kathmandu valley. The research has limited sample size and purposive sampling, which may not match the data with different sampling method and may not generalize the finding of this research to others. This study has basically focused on depression, anxiety and stress among various psychological impacts after divorce and has not covered other psychological issues. This research is based on primary data and useful for academic purpose but it may not help to find out the solution for divorcee client in counseling. Due to limited time and resources, the findings may not match others. The study has used a mixed method which may not match with other findings.

Research design

This research is a mixed method. Quantitative research design has focused on the quantitative data of this research which are measured in terms of quantity such as, how many of the informants have similar or different issues in terms of psychological stress, anxiety and depression respectively. Qualitative research design has focused on the cultural issues among different informants. Individual experiences have given priority to understand the different cultural impact on divorce to answer questions about why and how people behave in the way that they do. It provided in-depth information about human behaviors and cultural practices.

Sampling and sample size

The researcher employed purposive and snowball sampling methods to get informant. The researcher has selected the divorcee respondents purposively. After that, the second and third sample has been selected on the basis of the divorcee individual’s information respectively which is called snowball sampling processes. Snowball is good because the total universe or total numbers of divorcee are not identified. The total numbers of participants are 48 different divorcees. Both male and female are included equally, 24 male and 24 female respectively. The units of sample in this research are originally from different parts of Nepal but they are currently living in the Kathmandu valley.

Data collection tools

DASS: It is an instrument that is often used to assess subjective depression, anxiety and stress, developed by Lovibond and Lovibond [15]. DASS-21 is a comprehensive data collection tool for depression, anxiety and stress measurement in this research DASS-21 item tool support the 3-factorial dimensionality of reliability and validity of 0.82 respectively. This tool really made researcher easy and fast to understand the depression, anxiety and stress level of the participants. It is a quantitative measure of distress along the 3 axes of depression, anxiety and stress. It is not a categorical measure of clinical diagnoses. The statement that the participants were asked is calculated as per its scoring key; zero to three. 0 did not apply to me at all - NEVER, 1 Applied to me to some degree, or some of the time - SOMETIMES, 2 Applied to me to a considerable degree- OFTEN, 3 Applied to me very much, or most of the time - ALMOST ALWAYS. Finally, their obtained score is categorized into normal to extremely severe level. Thus the following cut-off scores have been developed for defining mild/moderate/severe/ extremely severe scores for each DASS scale (Table 1).

Table 1: DASS scoring key.

This tool has five categories including normal, mild, moderate, severe and extremely severe. Among the 21 items of the research tool, the score was calculated and categorized into five major categories. It is categorized from zero to 21 item score into different category such as 0-4 score of depression refer that it is in normal condition, 5-6 is mild, 7-10 is moderate, 11-13 means severe and above 14 represents the extremely severe state of depression. Similarly, 0-3 score represents normal anxiety, 4-5 indicates mild, 6-7 is for moderate, 8-9 for severe and above 10 scores represents it is in extremely severe conditions respectively. Meanwhile, 0-7 represents normal stress, 8-9 indicates a mild state, 10-12 means moderate state, 13-16 indicates the severe level and above 17 scores implies that person is in extremely severe conditions.

In-depth interview: The mental health issues among cross-cultural divorcee and their consequences were collected through the help of in depth interview. Through the help of a checklist, different questionnaires were asked and their experience was written in a narrative form. This tool generated data required to meet the objective of cross-cultural difference status of stress, depression and anxiety among the divorcee. In depth-interview also explored contexts of marriage and divorces of culturally different couples.

Machine learning: The researcher has collected 16 cases studies for the detailed exploration of cross-cultural issues and the psychological impact of cross-cultural issues. From the very beginning of their marriage to divorce, how they were engaged into a rope of marriage and what made them oblige to divorce. It helped to understand in detail the subject in order to know about their psychological impact and cultural issues.

Data collection procedure

An instrument that is often used to assess subjective depression, stress and anxiety among patients is the Depression Anxiety Stress- Scale DASS developed by Lovibond and Lovibond [15]. DASS-21 tool for psychological issues including stress, anxiety and depression and checklist was made for cultural aspects respectively. After finalizing the checklist and survey tool the researcher had gone to collect the data. From February 16 to March 10, 2021, the researcher had worked in the field in order to collect the data. The researcher found out the first case of divorce on the basis of reference, one of the family members provided information about the divorcee and went there to collect data. The researcher made a good rapport with the informants and requested related information with verbal consent. Similarly, the researcher had collected all data from inside Kathmandu valley by using purposive and snowball sampling methods. One researcher had made a good rapport with the divorcee individuals and had a frequent meeting with the informants in order to collect detailed information.

Data analysis techniques

The psychological impact of divorce is analyzed on the basis of a valid tool and its scoring key of DASS from normal to extremely severe state whereas the qualitative data interpretation is on the basis of thematic analysis of the content. By calculating the score they obtained through the help of the DASS scale score manual and with the help of excel, the score is tabulated into the data presentation. After the tabulating scores, it has been written into a paragraph to explain and evaluate what fraction of the informants is in which condition. Similarly, the qualitative data are presented in a different way; initially, the researcher has recognized and organized the data while doing fieldwork and immediately those data are gathered and made a note. After the documentation, those data were reviewed and explored in detail about the given information. Later, the researcher has given the code to them and reviewed those codes and combines them into themes. Combined themes are written in a cohesive manner or into a paragraph in order to narrate their stories and experiences. Divorcee couples are unique in nature and face indifferent experience after the divorce which didn’t match with anyone else: it was given priority rather than searching for unnecessary similar traits and qualities. Each sample unit has considered as equally valued informants for the research.

Ethical consideration

Ethical issues are a major considered element in the research. Each and every informant has the right to reject the data collection process at any time they feel so. Without consent taking from them, the collected data are not legal that is why it is important to take a consent form which is already done. During the consent taking, they are being described the ethical issues and their information. In the consent form, it has clearly mentioned that we don’t disclose their name. To save informants, pseudo-names are used. The last thing is researcher had not given any advice to the participants on the same topic because divorce and mental health was a quite personal matter for them.

Socio-demographic characteristics of the participants

In this research, total numbers of participants are 48; including 24 male and 24 female respectively; have an age range from 27 to 55. Talking about their caste/ethnicity, age, region, they are heterogeneous. Similarly, different participants have, unique interest and their profession belongs to different social classes. It was difficult to indicate their class based on limited information here but their actual class reflected when they told the story of the families (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Education status of participants.

The education level of the divorcees can be clearly seen from the above graph: 18 of them have pursued M.A and above, 12 of them have pursued B.A, and 12 have also completed plus two and the remaining 6 of them are under S.L.C. Majority of the sample unit have a higher qualification. Based on this graph, depicts that divorce cases are increased among more educated couples. Education is one of the indicators of gender and social empowerment. When people were empowered, they want to enjoy more freedom and more option for livelihood. This could cause of increment of divorce cases among the educated couples (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Caste/ethnicity composition of the participants.

The Figure above shows that divorcee from different caste/ ethnicities. Among the total participants, there were 5 ethnic groups; Brahmin and Kshetri, Newar, Rai and Tamang. Altogether there are 12 Brahmin and Kshetri, 12 Rai, 12 Newar and 12 Tamang respectively (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Education status of participants.

It depicts those selected participants in this research on the basis of their marriage type. The number of love, arrange, elopement marriage are similar; 12 and the dance marriage, and Court marriage has equally 6 informants in this research.

Mental health status

The mental health status of divorcee was measured through the DASS scale where the total population was 48 which include 24 male and 24 female from 4 different castes. The tool only measures the depression, anxiety and stress level on the given point values. In total the 21 numbers of questions are being asked in order to find out their psychological status. Those 21 questions are deliberated in the score of 0 to 4 respectively. In this given table from the left, we can see the valuesstatus of stress, anxiety and depression and continuing to the right the measurements that individual scored the point from zero to 4. If they got score of Zero, it presents they have a normal state, 1 represents the mild level, 2 is for moderate, 3 represents that they have the severe condition and 4 means they are in extremely severe conditions respectively (Table 2).

Table 2: Overall mental health status of participants.

From the table, it can be inferred that the most of participants are having a mild level of psychological stress, anxiety and depression due to divorce in their life. One-third of total divorcee individuals have a severe level of anxiety and depression. However, 3 participants among the total population are under extremely severe stress and almost onefourth of them are stress-free.

From the data below, it can be inferred that in terms of caste/ ethnicity the level of anxiety is highest among the Brahmin and Kshetri which is 7 participants among 12 of total Brahmin and Kshetri caste. It is more than half of the total Brahmin and Kshetri, but the anxiety level found normal and moderate among the Newar divorcee individual, which is 2 from total (12) participants (Table 3).

Table 3: Anxiety level and Caste/Ethnicity.

From the data below, it can be inferred that nearly half of the divorcee individual from Brahmin and Kshetri have severe to extremely severe level of stress, whereas the Newari has again found no severe and extremely severe level of stress (Table 4).

Table 4: Stress level and caste/Ethnicity.

From the data below, it can be assumed that more than half of the divorcee individual from Brahmin and Kshetri has a severe level of depression, whereas the Rai and Tamang Equally (4/4) found the severe level of depression among total divorcee individual (Table 5).

Table 5: Depression level and caste/Ethnicity.

From the data below, it can be concluded that level of anxiety is higher in love marriage. Dance and court marriage also found severe among two-third of divorcee individual (Table 6).

Table 6: The table presents the depression level among different caste/ethnicity. Seven participants Brahmin & Kshetri caste has a severe level of depression. Similarly, 4 divorcee individual from Rai and Tamang have a severe level of depression, but more than half of them have normal to moderate level of stress. However, none of the Newar has found a severe level of stress.

From the data below, it can be inferred that among the dance marriage divorcee individual the stress is at a moderate level, whereas among the love marriage two-third of love marriage individuals have a severe level of stress, and court marriage also has a greater number of participants who has a severe level of stress respectively (Table 7).

Table 7: Stress and marriage type.

From the data below, it can be inferred that among the dance marriage divorcee individual the depression level among arranging a marriage is higher than other types of marriage. Meanwhile, a court marriage divorcee has no presence of severe level of depression (Table 8).

Table 8: Depression and marriage type.

From the data, it can be inferred that females are having somewhat more severe anxiety among the total divorcee individual in this research (Table 9).

Table 9: Anxiety and gender.

From the data, it can be inferred that both, male and female are having a somewhat similar level of severe stress among the total divorcee individual in this research (Table 10).

Table 10: Stress and gender.

From the data, it can be inferred that both, male and female are having a somewhat similar level of severe stress among the total divorcee individual in this research (Table 11).

Table 11: Depression and gender.

From the data below, it can be inferred that the lower the education the severity of the anxiety is higher. The number of participants having a severe level of anxiety is found among the high school level and SLC respectively (Table 12).

Table 12: Anxiety and education.

From the data below, it can be inferred that the lower the education the severity of the stress is higher. The number of participants having a severe level of stress is found among the high school level and SLC respectively (Table 13).

Table 13: Stress and education.

From the data below, it can be inferred that the lower the education the severity of the depression is higher. The number of participants having a severe level of depression is found among the high school level and SLC respectively (Table 14).

Table 14: Depression and education.

Mental health status among divorcee

Divorcee individual who had eloped marriage had a similar impact on their mental health. Eloped marriage is a type of marriage in which a couple get marriages without the consent of their family members. Almost all eloped married couple had not extremely severe mental health issues regarding stress, anxiety and depression but all of them had mild to moderate level of stress, anxiety and depression respectively. Regarding informants personal experiences or cross-cultural practices that they have similarities on family perception while a couple married through eloped; family reject their relationship or unwilling to accept it-Samjhana Paudel. She added that she can live alone without any support from family members because she overcomes the pain of not talking to family members for more than 5 years. Esha Adhikari also had similar experiences regarding the family perception; she added that none of the family members was ready for accepting our (me and my husband) relationship initially and it happened similar at last. Not only these issues were similar to eloped marriage but their family status was also similar; middle class. All of the eloped marriage had the power of conflict and the money they had was different. The lower class in terms of money had their per-annual income is below 5 lakhs but the higher one had more than 15 lakhs.

It has been found that there is commonness among the male and female participants of the research. Male had a major cause of divorce is joblessness and lack of property. According to the Rizma Khatri Krishna Mohan and David Rai, if they could afford enough money for their wife for household work they don’t think that divorce can be their part of life. Similarly in female, all of their voices are similar that if they had enough freedom and no extramarital affairs of their husbands. They argued that they were ready to do everything except extramarital affairs, informants they added; Samjhana Paudel, Mina Rai, Jyoti Shrestha and Esha Adhikari respectively. In addition, there are similarities in education status. The finding is indicating that higher education has higher divorce cases. It can be connected to the study of [8] when awareness increased the divorce rate becomes double in Nepal. Education and independence lead the person towards freedom. It made them confident and enhances their abilities to achieve personal goals independently.

In this research, the researcher’s focus is to find out the mental health status among divorcee individual and their cross-cultural practices which contributed them to divorce. This research has discovered that lower economic, jobless and non-professionals are having more psychological issues than the people who are job holder and earning high. A similar study conducted by Booth and his team in 2021 found that below medium family income, no post-high school experience, and wife not in the labour force put divorcing individuals at a disadvantage. Individuals reporting few premarital troubles and beliefs in the immorality of divorce also appear to experience higher stress level after divorce. Rizma Khatri and Mina Rai who are from the lower-class family had experienced extreme stress and severe anxiety respectively [16,17].

While examining the mental health status of divorcee individual on the reference of the family type; whether they live in a nuclear family or in joint? It is found that individuals who live in a joint family have more psychological issues than those who are in a nuclear family. A similar study [16] on the cultural impact of divorce on psychology indicates that divorce highlighted that individualistic society prefers to do more divorce and has less impact on the psychology of divorce. The study emphasizes that divorcee individual thinks that it is just a part of their life but people who live in collectivist society have been taken divorce as major challenges which bring people in some sort of psychosocial issues.

Similarly, education and their psychological status are closely connected to each other. As of the total participants in this research, most of them are educated. Most of the informants have a college degree. Only two of the total participants had School Leaving Certificate (SLC). This research shows that the higher the education level, the higher the chances of divorce. But this finding is contradicted with the study [18] on education and divorce. It concluded that currently, women from high education have more stable marriage relationship than the less educated person in several societies. Social educational differences in marital satisfaction and barriers to divorce can explain the inverse educational gradient of divorce.

Love, arranged, eloped and dance marriage highly practiced in Nepalese society and their impact after divorce according to its type was measured. Among the 4 major marriage types that are included in this research, the prevalence of love marriage is high. On the basis of their marriage types their psychological status after divorce been measured. It is found that love and arranged marriage has nearly half of the total population. Among them, half of them have the presence of severe level of psychological issues including anxiety, stress and depression which is high in comparison with other marriage types. However, one-third of the love and arranged marriage divorcee individual have a moderate level of such issues.

While examining the psychological status of divorcee among the arranged marriage type, it is found that half of the arranged marriage divorcees are in severe anxiety and one-fourth of them are in severe depression. On the other hand, rest of half of the participants is in mild to moderate level of psychological stress, anxiety and depression respectively. The presence of psychological issues after their divorce among eloped marriage was that 75% are in mild to moderate level of stress, anxiety and depression. 50% of the male participants in this research have normal psychological issues who got divorced from female of different Caste. It means they did not have psychological issues after divorce. Among the total divorcee, half of them are female and while understanding their psychological status; more than fifty per cent of female divorcees are in severe anxiety and depression. Almost all of them have some sort of psychological issues after their divorce.

The data indicates that none from the Brahmin community is in an extremely severe state of anxiety, stress and depression but 50% of them are in severe depression, and one third is in a severe anxiety state respectively. Nearly all of them have some sort of psychological issues and it may increase in the near future if they cannot manage it immediately. Data represents that among the Kshetri divorcee more than one-third of the population is in severe anxiety and one fifth is in severe depression, and extremely severe stress. Half of the male participants in this research have normal psychological issues; it means they are free from psychological issues after divorce. Among the total divorcee individual half of them are female and while understanding their psychological status, more than fifty per cent of female divorcee are in severe anxiety and depression. Rest of female participants has mild to moderate level of psychological issues after their divorce.

Looking into their cultural aspect of divorce is surprising. This study has examined a different aspect of the cultural practices in their home before and after they married each other. They experienced language as a hindrance to communicating with family members due to different mother tongue and in some of the cases, not every member understands the Nepali language well and they only communicate in the mother tongue. So, they failed to express their right emotion in the family.

Social class and food are closely associated with each other. One of the participants Kalpa Nidhi Khadka from Kaski, Pokhara belongs to an upper-class family is an army officer married to a middle-class girl after he was in love with her for 2 years. Finally, they got married. After 3 years of marriage, he divorced her due to various factors including, social, personal and family. He said that during the time of social gathering, most of his relatives and friends asked about her family background which is never matched. Not only outer pressure, but they also had differences inside his family too. He was fond of non-veg food but she was from a pure vegetarian family. She also refused to prepare non-veg food for them and they separated due to difference in food habit.

One of the female informants Ramila Basnet married to the same caste has higher education who was a principal in a school that has different stories than others. According to her, she deserved some respect and freedom from a family which was never taken into consideration. Also, she had a joint family. She decided to file a divorce herself, her cognition determines to live separate from that family where she was married. Now she is living a graceful life.

The study explores that the presence of mental health issues among the Brahmin and Chhetri culture is higher prevalent than in other ethnic groups due to their cultural practices. Divorce is not considered a solution for a married couple in Brahmin culture. Especially, Brahmin and Chhetri females who are divorced also get fear not getting a man again to marry. While going through this process, the trauma of the past and uncertainty of the future, they face various mental health issues. But in some other ethnicity, divorce is quite easy and not the subject of big worry, because they feel like they have already married to Bel and Surya and they are forever with them. The mental health issues among the male and female measured through the DASS tool revealed that females are having more than male. It has been found that the difference in cultural practices including, language, food, festivals, dresses and family role may lead to divorce quickly. The crosscultural married participants faced issues regarding language, other cultural practices and their belief. This research indicates that females with higher education are likely to take divorce as a solution and they can manage the psychological issues. Unlike, females from lower education are rarely ready for divorce and they are suffering more from psychological issues too. This shows that divorce may not be similar for everyone. The thoughts, beliefs, socio-economic factor, cultural background and many other multi factors determine the mental health state of divorcees. It can be concluded that cultural issues are dominant factors of divorce. After having divorce, they face psychological issues due to their cultural practices and the severity of psychological problems depends upon ethnicity as well. Once people get married to a different culture or in another castes, they have to counter with cultural conflict which later converts to divorce.

This research was partially supported by PICS NEPAL. This paper is the result of a collective effort of mine, my Colleague, supervisor and the respondents who accepted my request to participate. We thank our colleagues from Tribhuvan University who provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the research, although they may not agree with all of the interpretations/conclusions of this paper.

We thank Prof. Shishir Subba PhD, Tribhuvan University for his assistance with data representation and analysis, and Prof. Nandita Sharma, PhD, Tribhuvan University for his comments that greatly improved the manuscript.

We would also like to show our gratitude to Anjan Kumar Dhakal, Clinical Psychologist, and PICS NEPAL for sharing his pearls of wisdom with us during the course of this research, and we thank “anonymous” reviewers for their so-called insights. We are also immensely grateful to the Team of PICS NEPAL and the Psychology Department of Tribhuvan University for their comments on an earlier version of the manuscript, although any errors are our own and should not tarnish the reputations of these esteemed persons. We are thankful to all the participants of this research as informants; if they had not given their valuable information, this work would be incomplete. Finally, we are thankful to my relatives, participants, friends and each and everybody who played a vital role to complete this program.