Literature Review on mental health and the life satisfaction of women who are in arranged marriages

Mental health and life satisfaction of women in arranged marriages

Introduction

The literature aims to provide additional research on women's mental health and life satisfaction in arranged marriages. The literature comprises the foundational knowledge of such marriages and gives a justification for my future research. The review will assist as my research will be within its contexts; though, it will identify the need to study women's lives in such marriages further (Diamond-Smith et al. 2020). The literature identifies gaps in the research, inconsistencies, and conflicts, thus determining future research. The literature review encompasses the contribution of different scholars on arranged marriages. It focuses on the effects of such marriages on mental health by exposing women's negative side (Kizilhan, 2017). The literature review will also discuss the study on the history of such marriages. The endeavor also looks at the possible research direction on women's mental health and their life satisfaction in such marriages. The review has been written through empirical and critical content consideration of different peer-reviewed works on family life.

According to the literature review, I have considered the gap in family satisfaction and mental health effects specifically on arranged marriages. Marriage is regarded as a significant phenomenon while discovering the problems related to life satisfaction and mental health. Marriage has great significance in one's life and is one of the most intense relations in adult life. However, not every person in the society wishes to get married; some opt not to marry due to different reasons such as religious beliefs such as Christianity. The quality of the relationship for the married couple determines the experience in the entire family life (Sarachaga, 2018). On focusing on arranged marriages, marriage experience has different mental effects on the spouses throughout the family life if there are abuse cases to a partner. An arranged marriage occurs whereby the parents, elders, and family relatives lead choosing a wed partner. Arranged marriage can lead to a forced marriage if the spouses do not consent to it in some cases. There are many negative impacts on women's mental health and life satisfaction in arranged marriages in such occurrences.

Personal statement

One of my primary goals in life has been to become a psychologist, but my parents had wished I would be either an engineer or a doctor. I was born in Vietnam to a Chinese mother and my father who was half Vietnamese and half French. My goal of becoming a psychologist was real until my arranged marriage at almost 16-years-old, which was planned by parents without my knowledge, mostly planned by my mother. This was after I had been in the United States since 8-years-old, and was doing well at Independence High School in San Jose, California. In other words, I had become very assimilated, very Americanized. I had no option as I did not want to disappoint my parents even though I thought of escaping by running away from our home. In the final analysis, I did not want to bring shame to my parents and my family.

While married and after having three daughters at such a young age, I decided to start a small business to be independent and have flexibility in work schedules to include my children's different life aspects. I wish to be close to my three daughters in their academic, recreational, sports, and other social lives because I want to help them. I have been very good at listening to others and solving problems since high school in San Jose, California.

One of my great intentions has been to ensure my daughters get the best opportunities in life and never be victims of arranged marriages. I want them to be independent individuals in their future lives.

Through my life experience as a young woman of an arranged marriage and a refuge from Vietnam, helping and financially supporting my two younger brothers has laid a good foundation for being a mother two three grown daughters, a small business owner my whole adult life, and pursing my goal of becoming a clinical psychologist. The review will help me to find out more information to help more people in my mental health career. It will help to engage in helpful research on the mental health concerns and problems associated with women in arranged marriages. The research on the quality of life for such a case will also be my research's major concern. This is because there are many more mental health concerns and problems for women as compared to men in arranged marriages.

Hypothesis

Women's mental health has raised a major concern in the world for those who have been in arranged minds (Olcay, Ads & Weisfeld, 2019). Many of the women clients in clinical psychology showed they all had problems with mental health. According to the research conducted earlier, the number of women with mental health problems is higher than men in the same situation. This has indicated the problem might be due to the union's pressure, which was entered through enough consent. The quality of life in arranged marriages has been a subject to consider in the attempt to configure while the mental health problems are mostly affecting women in such marriages. The main aim is to produce quality knowledge that can be relied on to give intervention to the family issues in arranged marriages. The quality of marriage is likely to affect the mental health of the spouses and their well being. However, marital quality is tricky as there is no standardized operational instrument used but depending on life's ethical considerations in arranged marriages. The negative issues in the arranged marriages, which are expected causes, will be found by reviewing different literature (Sarachaga, 2018).

The literature review's theoretical context aims to bring more problems that might affect women in marriages and are uneasy to find out. Different literature has been reviewed to bring the existing knowledge on the health problems concerning arranged marriages and focus on bringing more hidden problems, which might cause health problems on women under such marriages. The marital pressure and responsibilities in such unions will be configured through the review and contribute to the research.

The quality of marriage is related to the spouses' mental health (Olcay, Ads & Weisfeld, 2019). Mental health is greatly affected by expectations in arranged marriages, which are not achieved. Arranged marriage is by one or both of the spouses do not give their content in the union. Men seem to greatly influence the lives of women in such unions, thus contributing to their poor health. However, the participants willingly accept the marriage; many consequences affect the relationship between the two spouses.

In most cases, the women do not have consent in the arrangements as both families negotiate and give their daughter to the male spouse. Women's autonomy in this kind of marriage is low, and the fundamental love notion is not considered, which can lead to mental illness in women. The satisfaction of love, friendship, interest, sexual gratification, and treatment is a fundamental aspect that can affect women's lives in arranged marriages. The truth on whether the health problems for women who are victims of such unions are related to the kind of life will be found out through different literature reviews. Being victims of arranged marriages has many difficulties, and life is a mess as you have to live like strangers in the same house. Life satisfaction and mental health for women in arranged marriages have many underlying negative impacts.

References

Olcay Imamoğlu, E., Ads, M., & Weisfeld, C. C. (2019). What is the impact of choosing one’s spouse on marital satisfaction of wives and husbands? The case of arranged and self-choice Turkish marriages. Journal of Family Issues, 40(10), 1270-1298.

Diamond-Smith, N. G., Dahal, M., Puri, M., & Weiser, S. D. (2020). Semi-arranged marriages and dowry ambivalence: Tensions in the changing landscape of marriage formation in South Asia. Culture, health & sexuality, 22(9), 971-986.

Sarachaga-Barato, N. (2018). Forced Child and Arranged Marriages. In Handbook of Sex Trafficking (pp. 85-92). Springer, Cham.

Kizilhan, J. I. (2017). Forced marriage and mental health by migrants in Germany. Arch Community Med Public Health, 3(2), 071-076.