FAMILY COMMUNICATION PATTERN AND MARITAL SATISFACTION OF COUPLES

1.1 Introduction

Marital satisfaction is the subjective evaluation of one’s experience in their marriage, it is not a property of a relationship; it is a subjective experience and opinion (Baghipour, 2010). Communication skills are the ability to symbolically and efficiently transfer the meanings and messages one has in mind, when the couple’s communication is of a better quality, they can feel closer to each other, can share thoughts and feelings, can feel more intimate, and by prevention of any possible misunderstanding which is at the bottom of couple’s conflicts, the couples can more enjoy being together (Baghipour, 2010).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

The demander-withdraw interaction pattern has been a focused interest of close relationship researchers and clinicians for several decades. Communication pattern, in intimate relationships, much attention has been attracted by different researchers. Arguably the most robust finding about demand-withdraw is the association with relationship dissatisfaction. Gottman and colleagues (2003) identified demander-withdraw as a phenomenon that is associated with poor marital criteria. However, stability in marriage may at times be influenced by certain socio-cultural variables. The influence of the variables may be negative resulting to insecurity and unhappiness in marriage or may be positive resulting to a stable and happy union. These variables range from cultural diversity (in case of interethnic marriage), to educational, social, economic and even religious background.

Even age difference is inclusive in these variables. For instance, a lady once confessed that she can never marry an illiterate no matter how rich he may be, because, one day, he might ignorantly use his certificate as a toilet tissue. The implication of this open confession is incompatibility and social inequality in education which are factors that may influence marital stability. The current instability in some marriages in our society today tend to be the resultant influence of social, economic and cultural changes in people’s pattern of living. These changes, according to Amaonye, (1996), have occurred and have continued to occur so rapidly that they are not yet absorbed into our ways of living.

Furthermore, compatibility in social lives of couples a strong factor for marital stability and survival. When the social lives of couples are at variance, it may likely portend great threat to marital stability, because it takes time to come to terms with why some social outings and involvement are necessary. However, the realization of the salient influence of these socio cultural variables on marriage may likely be positive moment towards marriage stability in our society today.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Family Communication Pattern and Marital Satisfaction of Couples.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

The wish of every couple is to spend their life time together and, joyfully till death part them. However, this is not usually the case all the time because at a particular period in their lives, frictions do arise which lead to a near or total collapse of the marriage. And this is one of the inevitable challenges that accompany marriages.

Socio-cultural factors such as religions, age, socio-economic status, social class, educational background, personality, traditional values etc influence the marital stability of marriage among couples. And the factors are very important variables in marital stability which are seldom recognized by many couples, no wonder there are breakages in many homes as a result of no love, lack of understanding, lack of compatibility, disparity in age, in education, religion and social classes.

Many, for instance, have failed to realize that when couples are of diverse culture (inter-ethnic marriage), there is need to respect each other’s culture since this translates to respecting the person you married and subsequent marital stability. These days marriages fail due to lack of tolerance, lack of mutual trust, lack of patience, non-child bearing, no effective communication, lack of good marital altitudes, similarities between couples, lack of maturity and poor socio-economic status.

Finally, when couples are not from same socio-cultural background, and do not have the same value system and norms, they tend to vary in understanding of themselves and lack of understanding no doubt, creates conflict, and instability in marital union.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to scrutinize the Family Communication Pattern and Marital Satisfaction of Couples. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to:

1. Examine whether there is difference between family communication pattern and marital satisfaction among couples.
2. Find out whether there is difference between ethnicity and marital success among couples.
3. Determine whether there is influence of communication on marital satisfaction.
4. Investigate whether socio-economic status has an impact on couples’ marital success.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Will there be any significant influence of socio-cultural variables on marital Satisfaction?
• Will religious backgrounds of couples influence their marital Satisfaction?
• Is there any significant influence of socio-economic states of couples on their marital Satisfaction?
• Will lack of family communications affect the marital Satisfaction of couples?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

• H₀1: There is no significant influence of religion and couples’ marital satisfaction.
• H₀2: There is no significant influence of socio-cultural variable and couples’ marital satisfaction.
• H₀3: There is no significant influence of family communication and couples’ marital satisfaction.
• H₀4: There is no significant influence of socio-economic statuses of couples on their marital satisfaction

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1.7 Significance of Study

Marriage should be contracted through a careful planning not accidental marriage (that is marriages that are not planned but are forced on couples to save the family or families from embarrassment) should be avoided like a plague. Before a man weds his wife, both of them should reach the age of maturity. They should mature socially, economically, temperamentally, financially etc.

For a happy marriage, they should maintain a feeling of love and affection. The wife must experience a feeling of being wanted and a sense of belonging, care and security. The husband too needs love and affection to ensure him of a stable marriage. Marriage partners should avoid cognitive error that is, they should not expect the other person to see it. Therefore, if the husband wants the wife to behave in a certain way, he should inform her about his wishes, the same is true of the wife to her husband.

Sexual compatibility tends to foster marital stability; marital oneness to large extent depends on sex. Infact, sex is a form of communication and probably, the most legitimate in which two persons (husband and wife) express oneness of mind and feeling.

Therefore, partners in marriage should be socially compatible.

Couples: The findings and recommendation of this study will be of great benefit for couples; both the already married ones and those intending to marry. This is because they will learn the factors that contribute to marital stability or harmony in marriage.

Adolescents: They will learn from the study, especially those who are of marriageable ages. This is because they will get to understand that there are some factors that can help marriages to grow and develop instead of dying down. They would have an insight of the role of social cultural factors, money or wealth play in sustaining marriages.

The Society: The society will learn through this study how finance can make marriage to work well. This is because, without enough financial powers, marriages tend to be conflict-stricken.

For marriage to work out well, couples should not entertain the interference of in-laws or the third party syndrome. They should avoid washing their dirty lining in the public. They should be of one religious sect, joint account, mind the same thing, maintain peace in the home and allow love and affection to rule their world.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The study focuses on the Family Communication Pattern and Marital Satisfaction of Couples in Nigeria.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

For easy comprehension of this study, all conceptual terms were defined thus:

1. Culture: This is defined as a term emerged whole of idea and things produced by men in their historical experience by 1910 America Anthropologists were using “Culture” to refer to distractive of traits characterizing particular tribal societies.
2. Culture Heritage: This is a process of bringing together people of different ideas and cultural background to have common interest and perceive a common goal.
3. Marriage: The legal joining together of two person’s of opposite sex as husband and wife.