Abstract
As the divorce rates in Korea have increased dramatically in recent years, it has been assumed that the attitudes towards divorce changed as a consequence. It has been proposed that people have become more accepting of marital dissolution as an alternative to unhappy marriage. The Purpose of this study is to empirically examine the assumption and to explore whether there is a rural-urban differences in the attitudes towards divorce. The data were gathered from 716 respondents who reside in Seoul and 593 respondents who reside in rural areas, using the structured questionnaire. The data analysis revealed that there exists significant rural-urban differences in the attitudes towards divorce in some aspects, suggesting the gaps in the cultural changes. Yet, rural-urban residents seems to share the attitude that one should not sacrifice personal happiness to maintain an unhappy marriage for the shake of obligation and traditional family norm.
