INFLUENCE OF LENGTH OF MARRIAGE, GENDER AND AGE ON MARITAL STRESS AMONG MARRIED WORKERS

Abstract

Marital stress seems to affect every marriage though in various ways and at different levels of the marriage as seen in this research. This study investigated the influence of length of marriage, gender and age on marital stress. The study involved 186 married people selected from non-teaching staff of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Agbani. They ranged between 20 - 55 (i.e., x = 40.32) in years. The Marital Stress Inventory (MSI) by Omoluabi (1994) was used for data collection. Three-way analysis of variance F-test revealed that the three main factors of length of marriage, gender and age on marital stress were significant. The result also showed a significant interaction of length of marriage and age; gender and age. The result yielded non-significant outcome  between length of marriage and gender, and among length of marriage, gender and age on marital stress. It was recommended that females, married people in their old age and those in their long length of marriage should guide themselves from marital stress since this study proved that they are prone to marital
stress unlike males, married people in their young age and those who are young.