Pathology of Dowry and Social, Cultural, and Economical Factors Affecting it

It is clear that dowry has a significant effect on marriage. According to the decrees of holly Islam، it is recommended that one base marriage foundations properly from the beginning by setting fair and reasonable dowries. Unfortunately، nowadays، setting excessive dowries has become one of the major obstacles for the youth to marry. The aim of this research was to investigate the status of dowry of married students، itsthreats to marriage، and the socio-cultural factors influencing it. This survey study involved 180 students selected through random stratified sampling out of a total of 530 married students studying at Islamic Azad University of Felavarjan. The measurement instrument of the study was a likert-scale questionnaire developed by the researcher. It comprised three sections including; 1. demographic information 2. identifying the threatsof dowry to marriage، and 3. identifying threatening factors. Its Cronbach’s alpha reliabilities were 0. 89 and 0. 86 for section two and three respectively. Data was analyzed using Factor Analysis. The results of Factor Analysis revealed that dowry gave rise to familial، social، economic، and cultural damages with sampling efficiency coefficients (KMO coefficient) of 0. 82، 0. 66، 0. 64، and 0. 73 respectively. The results also indicated that social factors (with the average of 3. 35)، economical factors (with the average of 3. 33) exerted an effect larger than medium on dowry. Cultural factors (with the average of 2. 99)، however، had a medium impact on dowry.