IN-LAWS PRESSURES ON MARRIAGE AS PERCEIVED BY MARRIED COUPLES IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study was carried out to examine in-laws pressures on marriage as perceived by married couples in Kwara state. The purpose is to find solutions to the problems of in-laws pressures on marriage as perceived by married couples in Kwara state. The variables considered in the research include Religion and Gender, while the samples for the study consisted of 300 married couples, spread across Kwara state. Two research questions were formulated with research hypotheses which were tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance using t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The data collected were analyzed with the use of frequency counts, simple percentages and rank ordered. The In-Laws Pressure on Marriage Questionnaire (ILPMQ) was adopted for this study to gather the data. Experts in the field of Guidance and Counselling validated the instruments for both pre-test and post-test. A test retest was employed at interval of two weeks to test for the reliability co-efficient of the instrument. Cronbach’s alpha statistic method was used to test the result. A coefficient value of 0.80 was obtained. Based on the findings of this study, it was concluded that gender and religion difference had no significant in perception of in-laws influence on marriage and married couples should endeavour to improve on their in-laws relationship and communication styles, so that their in-laws pressure and marital adjustment will be mitigated. It was recommended that counsellors should dispense inter-personal relationship counselling among couple.