Marital Disharmony: Causes and resolution strategies in Enugu State of Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the causes of marital disharmony and resolution strategies for resolving marital disharmony among couples in Enugu State. Two research questions and one hypothesis were formulated to guide the study. Descriptive survey design was used. The sample for this study comprises 300 (150 literate and 150 non-literate) couples drawn through multi-stage random sampling from a population of 646,311 married people. Structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The research questions were analyzed using mean scores and hypothesis tested with t-test statistics. The findings revealed among others, infertility, lack of trust, sexual deprivation, early marriage, finance, communication gap, infidelity as the causes of marital disharmony. Avoiding the idle mind by engaging in hard work, use of family counsellors, listening carefully to spouse, developing a positive attitude towards disharmony, communicating feelings of love, admiration, likes and dislikes, are resolution strategies for resolving marital disharmony. However, there is no significant difference in the perception of literate and non-literate couples about the extent of the use of resolution strategies in resolving marital disharmony. Based on the findings, recommendations were made.

Key words: Marital disharmony, causes, resolution strategies, literacy.