CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF MARITAL CONFLICT AMONG MARRIED TEACHERS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN UMUAHIA NORTH EDUCATION ZONE

Abstract

The study investigated causes and effects of marital conflict among married teachers in primary schools in Umuahia North Education Zone. It adopted a descriptive research design.  A sample of 157 from a total of 524 married teachers in primary schools freely participated in the study.  Three research questions and one hypothesis guided the study.  30 items questionnaire titled:  Marital Conflict Questionnaire (MCQ) was designed for data collection. The instrument was validated by experts in the Department of Guidance and Counselling and Measurement and Evaluation, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. There were pilot-test using 20 married teachers in the primary school from Aba Education Zone which are not part of the study Area. Its reliability index was 0.87. The responses was designed in a 4-liket options of Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree(D) with weighs of 4,3,2 and 1 respectively.  Mean and standard Deviation was used to address the research questions while t-test was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The finding of the study revealed the causes of marital conflict among married teachers in the primary schools as: outside intimate relationship, sex, violent behavior of the man or woman, finance, inability to spend enough time with the family, issues relating to their children, education gap, childlessness, lack of effective communication and third person such as mother or father in laws. It also showed that marital conflict has negative effects of married couples. Based on the findings of the study, the researchers recommended among others that married teachers should identify causes and effects of marital conflicts and seek for counselling and other remedies to resolve issues and conflicts before they become a strong one