SOURCE:

Faculty: Education
Department: Guidance And Counselling

CONTRIBUTORS:

Akuezuilo, J. A.
Ebenebe, R. C.

ABSTRACT:

Marriage is an ageless institution ordained by God for the purpose that man and his wife grow in intimacy with each other and have one focus in life. The primary aim of this union is to love, care, protect and cherish each other. It also involves procreation and training of children born in the marriage for future generation. Unfortunately, marriage appears to have deviated from these biblical goals and societal expectations mainly because of a lot of risk factors/problems which make spouses especially married public servants to neglect their marital responsibilities thereby giving rise to marital dysfunction. Due to increased marital dysfunction in the society, there is need to ascertain the consequent risk factors and adjustment strategies hence this study on marital dysfunction risk factors and adjustment strategies used by public servants in Anambra State. The study employed descriptive survey design. Six research questions guided the study and six hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population of the study was 8,129 public servants in selected tertiary educational and health institutions in Anambra State. A sample of 814 (representing ten percent of the population) was drawn through proportionate stratified random sampling technique. Two instruments titled Marital Dysfunction Risk Factors Inventory (MDRFI) and Marital Dysfunction Adjustment Strategies Inventory (MDAI) were constructed, validated and used for data collection. The reliability of the two instruments as arranged in clusters, were estimated using Cronbach Alpha formular. The values obtained from the clusters in MDRFI are: Lack of intimacy 0.89, Poor Attitude/Habits – 0.86, Irresponsibility – 0.84, Financial Tussles/Issues – 0.88 And Challenges/Difficulties – 0.85. The values obtained from MDAI are Active Cognitive Strategies – 0.68, Emotion Focused Strategy – 0.76, Accepting Responsibility – 0.79, Active Behavioural Solving Strategies – 0.66 And Avoidance Strategy – 0.70 respectively. Eighty hundred and fourteen copies of the questionnaires were correctly filled, retrieved and used for analysis. Range of scores, frequency and percentage were used to answer the research questions while ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) and Chi square were used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that lack of intimacy, poor attitude/habits, irresponsibility, challenges/difficulties, financial tussles/issues are the major marital dysfunction risk factors of public servants in Anambra State. There is no significant difference in the mean response of public servants on their marital dysfunction risk factors based on their gender and profession but there is a significant difference in their mean response based on their place of work. Secondly with respect to the marital adjustment strategies they use, there is a significance difference based on their profession but it was not significant on their gender and place of work. Based on these findings, some recommendations were made, which include that marriage counsellors should, through seminar and workshops enlighten married couples on dimensions of risk factors that precipitate marital dysfunctions ultimately family instability, if not appropriately handled. In such meetings these counsellors should expand on appropriate strategies which can be used to deal with challenges in marriage relationships and counsel spouses on the importance of respecting their marriage vows, appreciating the worth of their marriage partners, understanding and accepting their gender differences as male and female in marriage unions, committing themselves to loving each other unconditionally