New Testament Underpinning of Premarital Counselling: A Reverberation Therapy for First Child Entry

Abstract

This study aimed at identifying some of the challenges faced by parents when the first child is born and to proffer solutions that may assist intending and married couples to adjust during this period.  A total of one hundred structured questionnaires were randomly distributed within the Babcock University community, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria. Sixty five completed questionnaires were retrieved. The respondents comprised both genders, married and single individuals who are intending to marry within a year. Respondent’s data were represented and subjected to descriptive and comparative analysis using student’s t-test and chi-square (SPSS 17.0) to establish the significant difference between groups. A value of P<0.05 was considered significant. One way ANOVA was also performed. The survey revealed that majority (94%) of the respondents received premarital counseling.  About 60% of the respondents indicated that they planned to conceive a baby immediately after getting married. The study indicated that 62% of the respondents had their first baby as planned. However, three-quarter of this group of people are those who planned to get pregnant immediately after marriage. Respondents who plan to wait for less than a year (64%) were fully prepared for their first child, while majority of those who planned to wait for about 1 to 2 years before conception (53%) were fairly prepared for their first baby. The study also revealed that among other assessed parameters, increased expenditure (60%) and a reduction in social activities (37%) are the most common challenges that couples experienced at the conception stage. Upon arrival of the first child, our findings revealed that the couple experienced greater challenges with increased financial expense, workload at home, less sleep and reduction in coping ability with duties at work and home. Finally, this study revealed that both those who received premarital counselling and those who did not faced the same challenge at the arrival of the first child. However, those who received premarital counselling in the context of 1 Peter 5:2-3 were better adjusted for the challenges.

Keywords: Premarital counseling, parents, first child and challenges

DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/9-12-06

Publication date:June 30^th 2019