ABSTRACT
This study examined the
influence of personality dimensions and spousal age difference on marital
adjustment of married staff of Godfrey Okoye group of institutions. Two hundred
and six (206) married staff of Godfrey Okoye group of institutions (the University,
the Institute of Ecumenical Education, the Secondary School, and the Primary
School) formed the participants of the study. The study employed simple random
sampling technique (simple balloting) to select participants to this study and
the Big Five Personality Inventory and the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale were
used to collect data for the study. Correlation result indicated that all the
five personality dimensions extraversion (r = -.13, p <.05), agreeableness
(r = -.36, p <.001), conscientiousness (r = -.26, p <.001), neuroticism
(r = .24, p <.001) and openness to experience (r = -.33, p <.001) were
significantly related to marital adjustment. Among these five dimensions of
personality, only agreeableness (β
=
-.244, p <.01) and openness to
experience (β = -.201, p <.05) made statistically significant negative
contribution in predicting marital adjustment, while the other three dimensions
(extraversion, conscientiousness and neuroticism) did not make statistically
significant contributions in predicting marital adjustment. Recommendations
were made as well as suggestions for further studies.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Marriage which brings together two typically different
individuals- different in so many ways, in choices and preferences, opinions
and stances, background and orientations, perceptions and some of the times in
cultural and religious background- require of parties to properly handle their
similarities and differences in order to live happily and be satisfied with the
marriage and with each other. According to Kumari (2017), marriage is an
institution whereby men and women are joined in a special kind of social and
legal dependency for the purpose of founding and maintaining a family.
Marriage, indeed is an important factor of our family system. This is based
upon the need for being and living together and the emotional security, this
provides, upon the needs for sexual expression and upon the desire for the
begetting of off spring and an ideal union is one that fulfils most effectively
these sexual requirements (Kumari, 2017). People marry for many reasons, like;
love, happiness, companionship and the desire to have children, physical
attraction or desire to escape from an unhappy situation (Bernard, 1984).
Couples who are able to understand themselves and positively
cope with their uniqueness as well as their similar qualities are said to have positive
marital adjustment and vice versa. Every married person and couple anticipates
satisfaction- with spouse and the marriage- and feelings of happiness in the
Marital adjustment has been given different definitions.
Thomas (1977) and Sinha and Mukerjee (1990) viewed it as a state of living and
defined it as "the state in which there is an overall feeling between
husband and wife, of happiness and satisfaction with their marriage and with
each other”; while Hashmi, Khurshid, and Hassan, (2007) saw it as a condition
and defined it as the condition in which there is usually a feeling of pleasure
and contentment in husband and wife and with each other. Nugent (2013) saw it
as a process in which partners in a marriage adapt and change to their new
roles complementing each other, acting as a team opposed to two separate units.
These definitions point out
that a well-adjusted married life is that in which there is satisfaction and
feelings of wellness among partners with the marriage and the spouse. With
this, marital adjustment can be seen as the state in which couples understand
and cope with their spouse’s unique as well as similar qualities and the
challenges of married life in order to bring about feelings of wellness between
them and to have a relatively satisfactory marriage.
According to Lazarus (1983),
there are six areas of marital adjustment such as, religion, social life,
mutual friends, in-laws, money and sex. A study conducted by (Margolin, 1980)
found that there are ten areas of marital adjustment namely, values, couple
growth, communication, conflict resolution, affection, roles, cooperation, sex,
money and parenthood. Marital adjustment therefore calls for
Marital distress has been
associated with a host of psychological difficulties, particularly depression
(Beach, Whisman & O'Leary, 1994). The ultimate measurement of successful
marriage is the degree of adjustment achieved by the individuals in their marriage
roles and interaction with one another. Whether or not a marriage is successful
is determined by the interaction between the two partners over the time span of
their marriage (Kumari, 2017).
Bouchard, Lussier and sabourin (1999) made a good contribution
to the understanding of the relationship between personality and marital
adjustment by using the five factors model of personality. Many researchers
believe this model is a comprehensive framework for organizing personality
traits (Borkenau & Ostendrof, 1990; Digaman, 1990; Mc Crae 1991; Montag
& Levine 1994). The five factor model postulates that the normal
personality is multidimensional, composed of five dimensions: Neuroticism,
Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness and conscientiousness (Kumari, 2017).
Spousal age difference is the age gap between couple.
One of the features in the marriage studies is that individuals match in
assorted ways on age and that the most common pairing is one in which the
husband is a few years older than the wife (Presser, 1975; Glick & Lin,
1986). While this pattern of matching on age is well known, the underlying
mechanism that generates this sorting is not well understood. For example, some
studies suggest that marital gains are largest in older husband-younger wife
pairs (Bergstrom & Bagnoli, 1993) while others find that marital gains are
largest for similarly-aged couples (Choo & Siow, 2006). A number of
theoretical models assume that men (and in some models, women) prefer younger
spouses for their “fitness” or fecundity (Siow, 1998; Coles & Francesconi,
2011; Diaz-Gimenez & Giolito, 2013), while analysis using online and speed
dating data suggest that both men and women instead prefer similarly-aged
partners (Belot & Francesconi, 2013, Hitsch, Hortascu & Ariely, 2010).
The drive of the present study is to examine the effect of
the five dimensions of personality namely, Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness,
Agreeableness and conscientiousness and spousal age difference on marital
adjustment among staff of Godfrey Okoye group of institutions.
STATEMENT OF
PROBLEM
The rate of dissatisfaction and maladjustment in today’s
marriages is alarming leading to dissolutions of marriages, separation and
other counter-togetherness outcomes. This makes investigating the dimensions of
personality that predispose married men and women to adjust to their marriage
an important fit. Studies have shown that personality dimension such as
Neuroticism and Extraversion have relationship with marital adjustment (Bouchard
et al, 1999; Kosek, 1996; Lester et al, 1989; Russell & Wells, 1994). There
is however need to find out the contribution of all the five dimensions of
personality -
People – men and
women alike, when making choice of partner consider their age differences.
Older men tend to either chose same/closely aged women or chose younger or even
much younger (than them) aged women. Some even do not mind older (than them)
women. Women chose most often, older men, same/closely aged and rarely younger
(than them) men. This choice is usually accompanied with certain feelings.
Therefore, it will be important to look into the ability of spousal age difference
(how many years old one spouse is older than the other) in predicting marital
adjustment and equally see how it works together with personality dimensions to
predict marital adjustment. Specifically, the problem of this study are as
follow:
1.
Will the five dimensions of
personality predict marital adjustment?
2.
Will spousal age difference predict
marital adjustment?
Purpose of the
Study
This
study seeks to find out whether the five dimensions of personality and spousal
age difference can be used to predict marital adjustment among married staff of
Godfrey Okoye group of institutions, Enugu. Specifically, this study will seek
to:
i.
Determine the influence of
Neuroticism on marital adjustment among married staff of Godfrey Okoye group of
institutions, Enugu
ii.
Determine the influence of
Extraversion on marital adjustment among married staff of Godfrey Okoye group
of institutions, Enugu
i.
Determine the influence of Openness
on marital adjustment among married staff of Godfrey Okoye group of
institutions, Enugu
ii.
Determine the influence of
Agreeableness on marital adjustment among married staff of Godfrey Okoye group
of institutions, Enugu
iii.
Determine the influence of
Conscientiousness on marital adjustment among married staff of Godfrey Okoye
group of institutions, Enugu
iv.
Determine the influence of spousal
age difference on marital adjustment among married staff of Godfrey Okoye group
of
institutions,
Enugu
OPERATIONAL
DEFINITIONS OF TERMS
Marital adjustment
This is the state in which
there is usually a feeling of pleasure and contentment in husband and wife with
each other and with their marriage measured using the 14-item Revised Dyadic
Adjustment Scale (RDAS) by Busby, Christensen, Crane, & Larson (1995).
Personality
This is the set of habitual behaviours, cognition and
emotional patterns that characterize an individual and differs him/her from
others as measured by a 44-item big five factor scale regarded as the NEO FFI
by Costa and McCrae (1992).
Spousal age
difference
This is defined as
the number of years with which one spouse is older than the
other as indicated
by the participants.
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