sources of marital stress of people in polygamous marriages in kwara state: implication for counselling

Abstract

The study investigated sources of marital stress of people in polygamous marriages in Kwara State. The researchers thus investigated whether or not there was a significant difference in the sources of marital stress of people in polygamous marriages in Kwara State on the bases of gender, religious affiliation and educational attainment. Descriptive survey research procedure was adopted for the study. The Multistage sampling technique was used to draw a sample of 600 respondents. The instrument for data collection was the Sources of Marital Stress Questionnaire (SMSQ). Research questions were raised while research hypotheses formulated were tested. The data collected were analysed through the use of frequency counts, percentages, t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that inabilitiy of husbands/wives to meet the sexual demands of wives/husband was the major source of marital stress of people in polygamous marriage. Based on the findings, there is a need for proper enlightment on marital counseling for the singles and married on the stress associated with polygamous marriages