ABSTRACT
The
purpose of this study is to investigate on the characteristic of good future
partners as perceived by students in tertiary institutions in Oyo town. The
variables of interest were gender, age, family background, institution and
religion.
Two
hundred respondents were sampled for the study. Five hypotheses were formulated
and tested. Frequency counts and simple percentages were used to analyse the
demographic data of respondents. While t-test statistic and analysis of
variance (ANOVA) statistical procedures were used to test the null hypotheses
generated.
The
result of the study revealed that the major characteristics of a good future
partner is that a good future partner must be morally upright and God fearing,
this characteristics ranked first in the ranking table. Next to this are “a
good future partner must be a very caring person and someone I really love.
These two characteristics are strong and important characteristics needed in
choosing a good future partner.
Base
on the findings of this study it was recommended that effort should be made by
professional counsellors to organize seminars to enlighten youths on the need
to be conscious of their choice on characteristics of good future partner. And
that the curriculum planners should design curriculum in such a way that
marriage education will be given the proper place in Nigerian tertiary
institutions, to ensure that the right values are inculcated into the youths.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Title Page i
Approval Page ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract vi
Table of Contents vii
List of Tables xi
CHAPTER
ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study 1
Statement of the Problem 10
Research Questions 15
Research Hypotheses 16
Purpose of the Study 17
Significance of the Study 17
Operational Definition of Terms 19
Scope of the Study 20
CHAPTER
TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction 21
Concept and meaning of Marriage 22
Importance of Marriage 27
Types of Marriage 32
The Spouse Selection Theories 37
Qualities of a Good Future Partner 44
Characteristics Considered in
Selecting a Good
Future Partner 47
General Limitations on Selection 57
Summary of the Review of Related
Literature 63
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
Introduction
66
Research
Design 66
Sample and
Sampling Procedure 67
Instrumentation 89
Psychometric
Properties of the Instrument 69
Validity 69
Reliability
70
Procedure
for Data Collection and Administration
71
Method of
Data Analysis 71
CHAPTER
FOUR: RESULTS
Introduction 72
Demographic Data 72
Hypotheses Testing 80
Summary
of Findings 85
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION,
AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
87
Discussion 88
Conclusion 91
Implication
for Counselling 92
Recommendations
93
Suggestions
for Further Studies 94
References 95
Appendix 98
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Distribution
of Respondents on the basis
of Gender 73
Table 2: Distribution of Respondents on the basis
of Age 74
Table 3: Distribution
of Respondents on the basis of
family
background 75
Table 4: Distribution
of Respondents on the basis
of
Institution 76
Table 5: Distribution
of Respondents on the basis
of Religion
77
Table 6: Rank
order of items on the characteristic of
good future
partners 78
Table 7: Means, standard deviation and t-value
of respondents on the basis of Gender 80
Table 8: Mean,
standard deviation and t-value
of
respondents on the basis of age 81
Table 9: Analysis
of Variance (ANOVA) result
comparing
the mean scores of responses
on the
characteristics of good future
partner as
perceived by respondents on
the basis
of family background 82
Table 10: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) result on
the characteristic of good future partner
as perceived by respondents on the basis
of institution 83
Table 11: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) result on
the characteristic of good future partner
as perceived by respondents on the basis
of religion 84
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Selection of a mate is an integral
part of life, it is a step needed in building a good marriage. Many human needs
for happiness can be satisfied in the family circle between partners, and a
warm family relationship can fill human’s normal longing to be loved, to be
appreciated to feel needed in a wonderful way. History have it that marriage
remains the most respected institution in the world and man has been known to
seek for a partner with whom to spend his life time, because it’s a life time
commitment (Kumuyi, 2005). It is a natural trait that humans want to have mates
or companions with whom they share the various aspects of their lives: in order
to satisfy sexual, social and other psychological desires.
Human behaviour is because of stimuli
from environment acting upon instincts and emotions (Sundharm and Vaish, 1978).
Hence, at a certain stage in a person’s life, due to such societal stimuli, he
or she becomes more concerned with the idea of having a family. Family
arrangement or as an institution is a societal recognized means through which a
man and a woman become husband and wife. Culturally until the twentieth
century, it was relevantly rare for adults to go through life without marrying
(Sundharm and Vaish, 1978). Basically, marriage is publicly recognized as a
conjugal unit, or more or less as a permanent alliance between a man and a
woman. In most societies, the families of the partners have a role in
establishing the relationship. Often choosing the mate, and at the least
manifesting their approval of the choice. Most often, they participate in rite
of passage, which constitutes formal marriage.
The characteristics that one looks for
while choosing a good mate vary from one individual to another, one family to
another and even culture to culture. Some young individuals have had a say or
at least a veto in their choice of their marriage partner, while others were
dependent on family backing. Individuals who want to make independent choices
can pay their own way and get marry even when their family strongly disapproves
it. Most people however, seek family consent for their choice of life partner.
Although the choice of spouse may give rise to interpersonal conflict, most
young people still consult their parents about it.
It is a firmly established societal
view that the issue of selecting a mate and marriage itself goes beyond the
couple alone. The immediate families of the two and even extended families
often influence the life of the couple and dynamic of the marriage. Willingness
on the part of the couple in co-operating with such external influence is often
due to their dependence on the relative for financial and moral supports have a
special reason for seeking parental or family approval in selecting her mate.
She is more likely to receive sympathy and attention should there be a marital
break up if the folks approved the alliance initially.
To summarise the above points some
characteristics that an individual looks for in selecting his or her marriage
partner can be referred to as yardsticks by which an individual measure. Oloko
(1994) observes the following as characteristic of selecting a good spouse;
physical beauty, discipline, social aptness, love, proper grooming and wealth.
Other yardsticks mentioned in the reference cited above include religious
affiliation, modesty, and humility. Odofin (2005) also stated that if a wise
choice of ones life partner is to be made, the following attributes have to be
considered:
(1)
Such a life partner must be a responsible person.
(2)
He or she
must be submissive, obedient and reliable.
(3)
He or she must be sexually appealing.
(4)
He or she must not be loose
(5)
He or she must not worship money.
(6)
He or she must be humble and mannered.
(7)
He or she must be neat and presentable
(8)
He or she must be a person to be proud of at any
given time.
All these
characteristics are reflection of the person’s educational religious and
cultural background as well as his or her general social orientation. An
individual’s perception of what he would like to become and his prospective
future circumstances are also strong determinant. This is simply due to the
fact that one’s mate can go along way actively or other wise influencing one’s
personality and future prospects. Although these criteria are a measure that
shows what type of person an individual is. It is therefore vital that one
selects a mate that will serve to complement him or her.
From the
Islamic perspective marriage is sacred and must be under taken by believes. The
Prophet Muhammed (S.A.W) said “marriage is lawful relationship, whoever defiles
it, is not of me”. Hadith. Allah in the Glorious Quran stated that: “And of
this signs is this: He created for you helpmate from yourselves that ye might
find rest in them, and He ordained between you love and mercy lo, here indeed
are portent for folk who reflect” (Quran chapter 30 Vs 21). The general purpose
of marriage in Islam is that the sexes can provide company to one another, love
to one another, procreate children and live in peace and tranquility to the
commandments of Allah. And there is no place for celibacy in Islam. Also in
Islam, marriage is seen as “mithag” a solemn convent (agreement). It should be
entered into with total commitment and full knowledge of what it involves, it
is not a matter which can be taken lightly. Marriage is also a form of “Ibadah”
(worship) because it is a means of obeying Allah and His messenger, that is
marriage is seen as the only possible way for the sexes to unite. One could
choose to live in sin, however, by choosing marriage one is displaying
obedience to Allah. (Tannah, 2005).
In the Holy
Scriptures, the Bible emphasizes the importance of choosing or having a good
spouse. On selecting a good mate: I Corinthians 7:39 says “….. she is free to
be married to whom she wants only in the Lord.” This statement assumes that a
good spouse can be found only within the Lord, that is in the Christian
congregation. Also Genesis chapter 2 Vs 18 reads as follows: “And the Lord God
said, it is not good for the man to continue by himself, I am going to make
helper for him as a complement of him”. The word “helper” and complement are
used to signify that it is a good wife that can really complement the good qualities
in a man. The book of Proverbs chapter 18 Vs 22 says: “He who finds a wife
finds a good thing and obtains favour from the Lord”.
In the work
of Dominion (1968), Mbiti (1962) and Blood (1972) all of whom agreed that the selection
of a mate is either made by the Traditional African Society or by the family
and relatives. Mbiti (1969) reported that at times, the choice of spouse or marriage
partner was made even before the child was born. Lucy (1969) reported that
until recent times, it was common in Nigeria for both boys and girls to
be betrothed before puberty. Blood (1972) writing on the same issue, stated
that in the past ageing parents whose children were still not married would
struggle valiantly against illness and old age. They could not afford to die
until they had discharge their obligation to their ancestors by successfully
completing the marriage arrangements for their children.
In the
Traditional African setting therefore, the selection of a spouse was mainly
that of the family or relative with or without the knowledge and consent of the
would be couple. According to Ibidun (1977) marriage, and family life form an
integral aspect of the extended traditional Nigeria, marriages is a family
based affair for parents made the selection or choice of partners for their sons
or daughters.
In contrary
to the above practice Ojo (1988) stated that, in making a choice of marriage partner,
youths and other educated elites believe that it is the responsibility of
intending couples to make their choice. While parents should only serve as
counsellors where and when necessary. Later the couples will then introduce
themselves to their parents while they continue until they ask for their
parental acceptance from the two homes. Selection of spouses or good spouses
entails a lot of investigations by the two parties involved so as to assure the
quality they want in their spouses. Such as love, beauty, grooming, discipline,
education, etc.
It is
interesting to note that in Nigeria,
there are different types of marriage with full legal implications. Among these
types of marriage enumerated by Adeoye (1975) are: church marriage, court
marriage, and traditional marriage. According to Fadeiye (1995), there is
Muslim marriage which allows for polygamous family. Those not receiving
parental or family approval often settle for court marriage or ordinance”
performance of traditional or customary marriage is clear indication that the
couple sought and receive family approvals.
This study
is aimed at finding out the characteristics of good future partners, using the
students in tertiary institutions in Oyo town as case study. This is intended
to assist youth in mate selection exercise, since they are the leaders of
tomorrow.
Statement of the Problem
Selection of spouse is a crucial
process that would – be couples go through. Many marriages have gone sourer in
the recent times because of the wrong choice of spouse., divorce is becoming
increasingly common, according to reports, Britain
has the highest divorce rate in Europe, Government figures shows that Britain
records 2 – 7 divorces per 1000 of the population. United Kingdom is having 2.8
divorce rate per 1000 of the population, while the legal marriage is 5.1 per
1000 of the population, the Census Bureau indicated that the divorce rate in
U.S.A had quadrupled from 4.3 million in 1970 to 8.3 million in 1996. Also 2003
survey in the United State of American showed that there were about 8 new
marriages per 1000 people and 4 divorces per 1000 people which indicates a
fifty percent divorce rate. The normal life style of American young adults now
is to live together for a period of time in a type of informal trial marriage,
these relationship frequently do not endure, growing percentage of committed
couples have decided to live in a common – law relationship rather than to get
married.
Japanese Health Ministry Statistics
indicate that one in three marriages now ends in divorce, while total divorce
figures have more than doubled from just over 95,000 in 1970 to 206, 955 in
1996. 2008 report gave 5.8 marriage rate per 1000 people and 2.2 divorce rate
per 1000 people in Japan.
Dr. Craig Peter Baldacci of long Grove community church in Illinois,
USA, carried out an
independent study during his visit to Nigeria in July 2002. He found that
the divorce rate in Nigeria
is about 50%. Especially disheartening is the fact that one – third of these
divorce occurs within the first four years of marriage. The issue of liberation
of women in Nigeria
to compete with men in all ramification of life has given room to divorce and
most of these celebrities now prefer to live as single parents. Growing numbers
prefer to live together without the responsibilities of marriage.
Comparable
trends are seen world wide. These show the reason why one needs to select a
good spouse, so that there would not be divorce, separation, and unstable
marriage in the family circle.
In this
modern society, parents are not likely to arrange marriage for their children,
although they can influence such choice directly. Adam (1979) states that, the
burden of choice rests with the young people themselves and each generation of
youths, has elaborated a set of norms and behaviour dating rituals to help them
select a spouse. This pattern of choice of partner can be described as
relatively “free” but there are some factors that are put into consideration
before choosing a partner for marriage. These factors according to James (1997)
include age, family background, educational background, ethnicity, religion,
physical appearance, occupation and love. Though theoretically a person could
choose anyone of hundreds of millions of persons of opposite sex, he or she is
limited to a subset, due to factors such as age, family background, education,
genotype, etc.
Moreover,
the freedom coupled with acquisition of western education has yielded a
positive result. A well educated young person has a fairly clear notion as to
his or her wishes and need in the marriage situation. Further still, in the
olden days, the two families usually conduct investigation into each others’
history and satisfy themselves that there was nothing against the union of the
intended couples. Particularly, attention is usually paid to family members
involvement in murder, contagious diseases such as leprosy and any other factor
which bring disgrace to the family. However, in the present day all these are
not always considered.
This
research work therefore investigates the characteristics of good future
partners as perceived by students in tertiary institutions in Oyo town, the
research would also findout whether age, ethnicity, religion, school and family
background have influence on the characteristics of good future partner as
perceive by students in tertiary institutions in Oyo town.
Research Questions
The following research questions are
asked to guide the conduct of the study:
(1)
What are the characteristics of good future partner
as perceived by students in tertiary institutions in Oyo town?
(2)
Will religion of the respondents have any difference
in their perception of the characteristics of good future partner?
(3)
Will the age of respondents have any difference in
their perception of characteristics of good future partner?
(4)
Will gender of respondents have any difference on
their perception of the characteristics of good future partner?
(5)
Will family background of respondents have any
difference on their perception of the characteristics of good future partner?
(6)
Will institution of respondents have any difference
on their perception of the characteristics of good future partners?
Research Hypotheses
The following hypotheses are generated
for testing in this study.
(1)
There is no significant difference in the
characteristics of good future partner as perceived by male and female
respondents.
(2)
There is no significant difference in the
characteristics of good future partner as perceived by respondents on the basis
of religion.
(3)
There is no significant difference in the
characteristics of good future partner as perceived by respondents on the basis
of family background
(4)
There is no significant difference in the
characteristics of good future partner as perceived by respondents on the basis
of age.
(5)
There is no significant difference in the
characteristics of good future partner as perceived by respondents on the basis
of institution.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to
findout the characteristic of good future partner as perceived by students in
tertiary institutions in Oyo town. It also aimed at finding out if variables
age, gender, religion, family background and institution of respondents will
have any difference on their perception of the characteristics of good future
partners.
Significance of the Study
This study investigates the
characteristics of good future partner as perceived by students in tertiary
institution in Oyo town. The study could help students in tertiary institutions
and the reader of research work to understand the characteristics to be considered
in selecting a good future partner. It could help students to select the right
future partner, which is essential to establish marital stability. This study
would assist parents in the provision of marital counselling to their children
and also enable marriage counsellors to offer realistic counselling to students
and young people who come to them for marital counselling or guidance as to how
to choose a prospective spouse. This study could also help to promote further
research in the area of characteristics to be considered in choosing a good
future partner in area of marital counselling. This would save the marriage institution
from its present condition of a fast increase divorce.
Finally, the study could help create
awareness in youths on the characteristics to be considered in spouse selection
and ways by which a right selection could ensure stable marriage.
Operational Definition of Terms
For the purpose of clarity in this
study, the following terms are operationally defined thus, as they will appear
throughout the study.
Characteristics: According
to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English characteristic is a quality or
feature of something or someone that is typical of them and easy to recognize.
Future Partner: - Someone who
will be your wife or husband.
Perceived: Written to
understand or think of something or someone in a particular way or become aware
of especially though the eye or the mind.
Tertiary Institution: Formal
education at a college or university.
Scope of the Study
The scope of the study is limited to
students in tertiary institutions in Oyo town that are unmarried or single. The
investigated variables in this study are: Age, Religion, Gender, Family
background and Institution. The study is limited to five tertiary institutions
in Oyo town. Federal College of Education (Special) Oyo, University of
Ado-Ekiti (Erelu Campus Oyo), Ajayi Crowther University Oyo, Emmanuel Alaynade
College of Education Oyo and Federal School of Survey, Oyo.
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