This study aimed to identify the reasons, circumstances and consequences of marital dissolution from records in legal proceedings. A documentary analysis of 152 marital dissolutions archived from 1992 to 2006 in the Forum of a city in RS was performed. There was a descriptive and discriminant analysis of the data. The most cited reasons relate to marital conflict in its different hues and intensities. As for the outcome, it was found that 46.7% of cases were consensual, 30.9 % litigation, 22.4% abandoned the lawsuit or have reconciled. The profile of the couples is mainly discriminated by socioeconomic level in relation to consensual processes or litigation. Consensual separations are more common in low socioeconomic levels and litigation in high. Data indicate that divorce may be considered a contemporary life crisis that demands more complexity of professionals in their interventions both legal and psychological phenomenon.
Divorce; Marital status; Socioeconomic status; Family relationship
