Perkawinan usia madya pasca perceraian di kecamatan Purworejo kota Pasuruan

ABSTRACT

This study is intended to elaborate an outstanding phenomenon of post�divorce marriage of middle-aged people in Purworejo Pasuruan. Since marriage mainly requires the bride’s or bridegroom’s physical and mental vitality, the decision of middle-aged people to get married in their 40 to 60 years old tends to be very prone to the divorce since many of them, this is not to say all, experience both physical and psychological decline. For middle-aged people, equalizing the complicated and contradictive cases, i.e. to fulfill the biological and psychological need and to face such decline, is not so easy to be realized. However, getting married in such condition is no longer taboo for anybody, even for those who have ever failed to establish harmonious family due to an unexpected divorce, who dislikes loneliness.

The above brief description attracts the researcher to conduct an academic study related to the factors which support the widow(er) in Purworejo District, Pasuruan city, to remarry in middle-aged period and their opinion about the future of their new family. This research covers sixteen respondents aged between 50 to 60 years who get married after having been divorced from their previous couple. The primary data of this research are derived from the result of the researcher’s interview on the respondents while the secondary data are taken from related written materials, such as books, journals, encyclopedias, etc. The methods applied in this qualitative study, therefore, are interview and documentation.

Based on the result of data analysis, the researcher concludes that there are five possible reasons for widow(er) to remarry in middle-aged period of life. First, psychological factor, i.e. longing for living together within the husband-wife relationship; second, economic factor, especially for women, i.e. trying to solve the family’s economic problem after being divorced; third, theological factor, i.e. avoiding adulteries which is, according to Islamic doctrine, included into sinful action; fourth, biological factor, especially for man, i.e. fulfilling the sexual desire through the blessed way; and fifth, for the sake of children who still need love and assistance from both parents.

Furthermore, the remarried middle-aged people argue that, like other couple, they want to build a more harmonious family compared to their previous life. In fact, of the sixteen respondents being interviewed, eight have proven to experience the divorce for the second time. This surprising fact indicates that people who get married in middle-aged period might possibly face more difficult obstacles in running the family compared to the younger. Thus, adaptive behavior, mutual understanding, and continuous discussion between the husband and wife are absolutely needed in the family unless it could be easily destroyed.