FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR EXTRAMARITAL AFFAIRS AS PERCEIVED BY MARRIED ADULTS IN LAGOS, NIGERIA

The study investigates factors responsible for extramarital affairs as perceived by married adults in Lagos metropolis. Extramarital affair has been described by many authors and scholars and has been identified as one of the causes of marital problem. Descriptive survey method was employed for this study and the population is all married adults in Lagos metropolis. A total number of 200 respondents were randomly selected in Lagos metropolis and a self developed instrument titled “Factors Responsible for Extramarital Affairs Questionnaire” (FAREAQ) was used to collect relevant data from the respondents. Collected data were analyzed with both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive static was employed for the personal data and research question and inferential statistic was used to analyze the hypotheses generated for the study. All hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level. The major finding of the study revealed that “sex related factor” was perceived by married adults in Lagos metropolis to be the highest factor responsible for extramarital affair. Gender, age, religion and educational qualification of the factors responsible for extra marital affairs while family type of the respondents did not influence their perception. Implications of the findings to guidance and counselling therefore is that counselling (Guidance) services should be extended to families so as to educate parents on the effects of extramarital affair on marriage and on the children and also for counsellors to emphasize the effectiveness of “sex” in marital relationship. Based on the findings of the study, it was therefore recommended that counsellors should organize continuously on the mass media enlightenment programme on the various factors responsible for extramarital affairs so that couples can learn and work on themselves to secure their marriage.