Power structure in the family and divorce; moderating role of gender attitudes

Divorce as a social problem has an increasing trend, especially in the last two decades. Various studies have listed different factors for the occurrence of divorce. One of these factors is the power structure or decision-making system in the family. In the present study, using the National Family Survey data in Iran, the effect of family decision-making system on the tendency to divorce has been investigated. In addition, the question arises as to whether the relationship between the power structure and divorce is influenced by individuals' gender attitudes or not? The statistical population of this study is people 15 years of age or higher that lived in urban areas of the country in 1397 and the sample size is 2768 married people. According to the findings, .9 Percent of urban families (equivalent to 167 thousand families) were on the verge of divorce in 1397 and 1.2 percent (equivalent to about 223 thousand families) were in critical conditions and close to divorce. The results of this study showed that in the group with traditional gender attitudes, the decision-making system in the family does not have a significant effect on the tendency to separation and divorce. But in the group with a modern gender attitude, the decision-making system has a significant effect on the tendency to divorce; As possibility of divorce has decreased from 18% in the group with individual decision-making system to 2.5% in the group with collective decision-making system.