INNOVATIONS IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MATHEMATICS EDUCATION IN NIGERIA, Ebele C. Okigbo, Nneka R. Nnorom, Ernest O. Onwukwe [best reads .TXT] 📗

enlightenment programmes for public servant to marital dysfunction risk factors. They should also organize workshops where they will help the public servants to understand the adverse effects of dysfunctional attitude among spouses. The church, the government and other stake holders should also join in the campaign in other to reduce marital dysfunction risk factors in the marriage of public servants.

 

Keywords: Intimacy, Attitude/Habit, Marital Dysfunction, Risk-Factors, Married Public Servants  

 

Introduction

 

Marriage can be described as an ageless contract designed by God for the purpose of unification of man and woman. It is for this reason over the years, it has been acclaimed a sacred and venerable institutions. It also believed to be the fundamental aspect of the society since the family that emerges through marriage processes is a microcosm of the society (Ifith & Ezeah, 2004).

 

The value of marriage differs from culture to culture, from ethnic group to ethnic group depending on the way each group perceived marriage. To some people marriage is life-long union, while some see it as a contract which gets broken when spouses get tired. The purpose of establishing the union of marriage is for life-long union. This is why Jesus told the Pharisees in the book of Mathew 19: 3 – 5 that God created the male and female and for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh (NKJV, Bible). In line with this, Odemenam, Justin and Igbansi (2003) submitted that most Africans see marriage as lasting agreement between a man and a woman who have consented to live a life of devotion and sharing with each other for the purpose of promoting their mutual growth and welfare as persons in their journey through life.

 

This is however contrary to what happens in some countries like western Europe, United States of America and Australia where they practice same sex marriage which is the practice of marriage between two men or two women. Although same sex marriage has being regularized through law in those countries, the legal and social responses have ranged from celebration in one hand to criminalization on the other hand. Nigeria for example, recognizes neither same sex marriage nor civil unions for same sex couples. On January 18th (2007) the Federal Executive Council approved a law, same sex marriage (prohibition) Act 2014 prohibiting same sex marriage. The proposed bill call for fourteen years imprisonment for anyone who undergoes, performs, witness, aids or abets a same sex marriage. In view of the above the researcher is not interested in same sex marriage but in marriage between a man and women which is the first marriage ordained by God.

 

Marriage is a socially legitimized sexual union, a life and death struggle maintained through the forces of law, companionship, friendship and romantic love. It is also maintained by bonding relationship which developed as couple share day to day routines such as feeding, bathing and taking responsibility of their children (Charlin, 2005). Marriage is a blending of two lives and union of two natures, it is like an egg in the hands of husband and wife which must be carefully cared for and nurtured to avoid breakage. It involves understanding, love, peace, patience, perseverance, trust, cordial relationship, free communication and forgiveness among others (Akuezuilo, 2018).

 

Obviously when a man and woman come together in marriage, they come from different background and with different mind sets and benefits built up based on their background experience. The expectation is that they would, in the course of living together adjust to each other and deeper in love and oneness thereby increasing the stability of their marital relationship. Often this expectation is not realized in many marriages consequently instead of the marriage relationship becoming stronger more cohesive and stable, it become weak and drifting apart set in. In some cases this situation sets in soon after their honey moon, they begin to drift apart, loosing cohesiveness, becoming selfish and self-centered, unfaithful, impatience and disrespectful to each other. Their trust for each other reduces, they become progressively cold towards each other, this is an indication that marital dysfunction is creeping into the marriage.  

 

According to Agha and Obika (2007), marital dysfunction is marriage that lacks some or all the qualities excepted to be in marriage such qualities as love, peace, understanding, tolerance, patience and trust. George (2002) also saw marital dysfunction as a marriage where the rate of marital exchange and benefits are lower than mutual punishment. Meaning that the level of understanding, sharing of love, kindness and selflessness is lower than the level of selfishness and self centeredness exhibited in the marriage by spouses. Marital dysfunction as affirmed by Akuezuilo (2018) is marital disharmony as a result of lack of love, care, trust, protection, free communication among others.

 

Marital dysfunction can come in different ways or sources. These sources of marital dysfunction are referred to as risk factors of marital dysfunction. These risk factors are potential causes of marital dysfunction which include; lack of intimacy, poor/selfish attitude, irresponsibilities, financial tussles (selfish attitude towards finance) hardship and other challenges. When these deficiencies persist and spouses begin to work as two separate individuals living together but just for their own personal goals, then dysfunction has set in.

Marital dysfunction manifest itself in a number of different ways and is very often marked by deficits in commitment to the relationship, low level of mutual caring behaviours between the partners, problems with communication and corrosive conflict resolution skills. All these depends on the level at which the spouses are experiencing them. If the level at which they experience it is mild, the dysfunction will be mild but if the level at which they are experiencing it is high then the dysfunction will be high.

 

According to Akuezuilo (2018), marital dysfunction risk factors can be grouped into five main groups namely lack of intimacy, poor attitude, irresponsibility, financial tussle, hardships/challenges. This study focuses on lack of intimacy and poor attitude as a marital dysfunction risk factor among public servants in Anambra State. This study tried to find out how lack of intimacy and poor attitude contributes to marital dysfunction.

 

Lack of intimacy in the marriage shows itself when spouses do not care for each other, lack sexual satisfaction, lack of love, spouse not yielding to advice, not spending time together, lack of trust and sleeping outside without informing the spouses among others.

 

Poor attitude on the other hand shows itself as flirting, consuming too much alcohol by spouses, accepting wrong counsel by spouse, always prefer to eat outside, frequent nagging, engaging in making charms or juju, being selfish and inability to control emotions, when these things happen in the family, it is obvious that the marriage is suffering from marital dysfunction. Marital dysfunction being a social problem affects a significant number of people in the world today. It affect people socially, physically and emotionally.

 

Emotionally, the spouse will not be happy, no more feeling of intimacy in the family, no feeling of love, no confidence among others. It also affect the child/children psychologically. The children become ashamed of the behaviours of their parents especially when the poor attitude becomes obvious.

 

Socially, the children isolate themselves from public. Some of them may decide to become stubborn and disobedient both to their parents and other significant individuals. Physically, these children may not grow well and may look sickly since their parents do not have time to feed them well. Orji (2013) observed that children from dysfunctional marriage sometimes become wayward, disobedient, school dropout, cultist, armed robbers among others.

 

Statement of Problem

Marriage is a relationship between two persons in the context, male and female, with an obligation to love, care and promote each other’s development, emotionally, socially, psychologically and spiritually. The major purpose of marriage is for the couple to be united, work together to raise Godly children by ensuring that they install moral values into them for the benefit of the family and the society. These days, marriage has largely deviated from the biblical injunctions and societal expectations apparently because of the present day hardships and pressure of work. This is because some parents appear to be largely unavailable at home to maintain functional marriage. Spouses appear to be very committed to their jobs for security reasons and to make ends meet. The situation apparently has adverse effects on the spouses inter-personal relationship and bonding in the marriage which inevitably results in high risk of marital dysfunction. Many scholars, authors and researcher such as Ibe, Obidua and Uzoechina (2013) conducted research on marital disharmony, causes and resolution strategies among couples in Enugu State. Also Onwuasoanya and Okeke (2004) on family counselling for management skills and marital stability among literate couples in Awka South Local Government Area.

 

Despite all these efforts made by scholars and other stakeholder in education, marital dysfunction risk factors apparently persist in Anambra State. This, however, needs to be empirically ascertained in order to find solution to such miserable situation. It is of this that the researchers embark on this study to determine the extent at which intimacy and  attitude/habit contributes to marital dysfunction of marriage of public servants in Anambra State.

 

 

Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to determine empirically the extent lack of intimacy and poor attitude/habit contributes to marital dysfunction risk factors in the marriage of public servants in Anambra State. Specifically, the study will determine;

The scores of public servants in Anambra State on intimacy as a marital dysfunction risk factor.

The scores of public servants in Anambra State on attitude/habit as a marital dysfunction risk factor.

 

Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study:

What are the scores of public servants in Anambra State on intimacy as a marital dysfunction risk factor?

What are the scores of public servants in Anambra State on attitude/habit as a marital dysfunction risk factor?

 

Method

The study was carried out in Anambra State of Nigeria using descriptive survey design research method. The sample size was 814 (102) public servants drawn from population of 8,129 public servants using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. A validated instrument known as Marital Dysfunction Risk Factor Inventory (MDRI) was used to collect data. Cronbach alpha statistics was employed to obtain the internal consistency of the instrument which was scored cluster by cluster. The values obtained from the clusters are 0.89 and 0.86 respectively. Eight hundred and fourteen (814) copies of the instruments were administered to the respondents and were collected after 1hr to avoid loosing any one. Range of scores was used to answer the research questions. The baseline for the instrument is that scores ranging from 8–24.5 and below are low risk factor while from 25 - 40 and above are high risk factor.

Presentation and Analysis of Result               

The data collected from the field for this study were analyzed and the summaries were presented in tables to highlight the findings.

 

Research Question 1: What are the scores of public servants in Anambra State on intimacy as marital dysfunction risk factor?

 

Table 1: Range of scores on intimacy as a marital dysfunction risk factor

 

Range of Scores

N

%

Remarks

8 – 24.5

140

17.2

 No risk factor

25 – 40

674

82.80

 High risk factor

 

Table 1 shows that 674 (82.80%) of the respondents with the scores ranging from 25 - 40 indicated that lack of intimacy is a marital dysfunction risk factor of public servants, while 140 (17.2%) of the respondents whose score ranged between 8 and 2.45 indicated that lack of intimacy is not a marital dysfunction risk factor of public servants in Anambra State.  

 

Research Question 2: What are the scores of public servants in Anambra State on attitude/habits as marital dysfunction risk factor?

 

Table 2: Range of scores on poor attitude/habits as a marital dysfunction risk factor

 

Range of Scores

N

%

Remarks

8 – 24.5

169

20.8

 No risk factor

25.40 – above

645

79.20

 High risk factor

 

Table 2 shows that 645 (79.2%) of the respondents with the scores ranging from 25 and above indicated that poor attitude/habits is a marital dysfunction risk factors of public servants in Anambra State, while 169 (20.8%) of