Courtship as a Predictor of Marital Satisfaction among Married Individuals

The general purpose of this study was to determine whether courtship predicts marital satisfaction among married individuals in South East Nigeria. Three research questions guided the study. Two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. A correlational survey research design was adopted for the study. The population was made up of 10, 533 married individuals. The sample consisted of 900 married individuals drawn using multi-stage sampling procedure. The following instruments were used in the study, Courtship Assessment Questionnaire (CAQ) and Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) and where subjected to face validation by three experts. The internal reliabilities were determined using Cronbach Alpha with reliability coefficient of 0.882,0.818 and 0.662 respectively. Regression analysis indicated that there exists a weak relationship between marital satisfaction. There was no relationship between courtship and marital satisfaction. The level of Education and the gender of the respondents did not influence courtship to significantly (p>0.05) predict the amount of variation in marital satisfaction married individuals in South East Nigeria. Based on the findings of the study, implications were highlighted and recommendation made, prominent among which is that the counsellors should organize seminars and workshop on courtship, problem solving ability and marital satisfaction for the youths and married individuals. Limitations as well as suggestions were also highlighted.