CHAPTER ONE
1.0            INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND STUDY
Divorce is the dissolution of marital relations; in this process marriage is completely broken down either in social or legal context. The Black Dictionary of law has defined divorce as "the legal separation of husband and wife affected by the judgment of decree of a court and either totally dissolving the married relations or suspending its effect so far as concern the combination of the practices (1994). Divorcees are free to remarry after divorce whereas separation may not allow it.
Divorce is nothing and in common senses it is taken easily somewhere in which a couple ends their marital relations and starts to remarry, but it may create some vital problems in the family, like adjusting to new life.
Many divorced people remarry in Nigeria, as well as other parts of the world, and about half those who do are already parents. The result is the creation of “blended families”, also called “stepfamilies”. For instance, in 1992, over 11 percent of all American children were living with one biological parent and one stepparent. Estimates are that a fourth of American children will live with a stepparent before reaching the age of sixteen. By the year 2000, it has been estimated that, stepparent is expected to outnumber traditional nuclear families (Cherlin and Furstanberg
2000). It can be argued that, perhaps the most important factor in the increase in divorce throughout the twentieth century has been the greater social acceptance of divorce. In particular, this increased tolerance has resulted from relaxation of negative attitudes toward divorce among various religious denominations. Although, divorce is still seen as unfortunate, it is no longer treated as sin by most religious leaders (Gerstel 1987).
Marriage is a social and cultural phenomenon and approved social pattern where by two or more persons establish a family. Sexual intercourse between the marital partners and subsumes reciprocal right and obligation between the spouses and their children. Marriage is a key means that enables to make a union between a man and woman, which may situate in different socioeconomic background. However, the forms of marriage are responsible to disruption of marital status and lead to divorce. In the present research 63.0 percent of divorce cases were under the arranged marriage, which may challenge to western divorce trend where, maximum cases of marriage are under love marriage which breakdown easily. Similarly, 37.0 percent of divorce cases are found with in love marriage.