Types of Marriage, Relationships, and Marital Dissolution

Vocabulary flashcards defining marriage types, alternative relationship structures, reasons for marital failure, and legal procedures surrounding divorce, alimony, and separation.

Arranged Marriage

A marital union where the bride and groom are primarily selected by individuals other than the couple themselves, particularly family members such as parents or sometimes a professional matchmaker.

Shotgun Marriage

A wedding arranged in order to avoid embarrassment due to premarital sex that can possibly lead to an unintended pregnancy.

Elopement

A marriage conducted in a sudden and secretive fashion, usually involving a hurried flight away from one's residence together with one's beloved with the intention of marrying without parental approval.

Marriage of Convenience

A marriage contracted for reasons of personal gain rather than for love and commitment.

Legal Separation

The legal procedure by which a legally married couple remains married while living apart.

Reasons for the Failure of Marriages

Factors including financial problems, neglect, loneliness, interference, abuse, infidelity, independence, and youthful marriage.

Divorce

The formal or legal dissolution of a marriage.

Grounds for Divorce

The recognized legal reasons to end a marriage: infidelity, abuse, separation, and mutual consent.

Alimony

A legally mandated amount paid by one party to the spouse with lower income or earnings, which ceases only upon the recipient's remarriage or the death of either party.

Child Maintenance Payments

Financial support payments for children born into the marriage, which legally cease when the child or children reach the age of 18.

Child Custody and Visitation Rights

A legal divorce determination where the party better suited to cater to the children's welfare is granted custody, and the other party is usually granted visitation rights.

Annulment

A legal ruling that occurs when a judge decides that there was no legal marriage and processes to void or invalidate it.

Common Law or Consensual Marriage

A marriage-like union where partners live together by mutual agreement without being legally married, normally recognized in Jamaica after living together for 5 years.

Visiting Relationship

A relationship where partners live in separate locations but still function as a family, often chosen for economic reasons including saving money to afford their own household.

The Outside Family

A family formed when the male partner in a relationship has another family outside of wedlock with a woman other than his wife.