Heterogenic Marriage and its Relation to Rate of Marital Conflicts

The present study is a survey aiming to assess the social and cultural factors affecting marital conflicts among housewives and employed women. It was performed via an experimental method. Upon revising the prior hypotheses and studies in the field, this study used homogamy and network theories to determine the issue at hand. Heterogeny is seen here as a heterogeneous cultural condition of marriage and spouse selection which is opposed to homogamy which is more harmonic or homogeneous, expressed in socio-cultural terms. Required data were obtained using simple random and cluster sampling methods, among 284 married women, through data collection questionnaire. Two-way analysis of variance test was used to analyze the data.Results showed that there were significant relationship between cultural factors (including the differences in the couple’s religion and the family’s traditional status) and marital conflicts. There was significant difference between housewives and employed women, from the point of the couple’s different religious beliefs and marital conflicts. Couple’s different religious beliefs caused more marital conflicts in employed women rather than housewives. There was significant difference between housewives and employed women, from the point of the family’s traditional status (in choosing spouse) and marital conflicts. Housewives with traditional families had more marital conflicts in comparison with employed women. There was no significant relationship between demographic variables (age of marriage, duration of common life and age difference among couples) and marital conflicts among housewives and employed women.