Premarital Counseling and marital stability in Anglican and Catholic churches of Bukoto-Nakawa Division.

Abstract

ABSTRACT The main aim of the study was to establish the role of premarital counseling in marital stability using a reference of couples from Anglican and Catholic churches in Bukoto, Nakawa Division with specific reference to; investigating the relationship between Emotionally focused counseling and marital stability of couples; finding out the relationship between cognitive behavioral counseling and marital stability of couples and; establishing the relationship between Relationship counseling based on Gottman model and marital stability of couples in Bukoto, Nakawa division. This study used a cross sectional research design where both quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted to investigate the role of premarital counseling in marital stability of couples from Anglican and Catholic churches in Bukoto, Nakawa Division. Purposive sampling technique was used to select Counselors and religious leaders while simple random sampling was used to select the couples. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS V.16.0 that was used in categorizing responses into frequency counts, percentages and mean. Relational statistics like Pearson’s correlations was also used to establish whether there is a linear relationship between the independent and dependent variable. Further, multiple regression model was also used to establish the effect of premarital counseling on marital stability in the study area. The study results indicated that that 71 % of all the changes in perceptions about marital stability are explained by the changes in perceptions about Gottman’s Relationship counseling (Pearson’s coefficient = 0.549, p= 0.000); changes in perceptions about emotionally focused counseling (Pearson’s coefficient = 0.731, p= 0.000) and changes in perceptions about Cognitive Behavioral Couple Counseling (Pearson’s coefficient = 0.728, p= 0.000) as applied to couples in the study area. Of the three, emotionally focused counseling had a more significant effect on marital stability amongst couples in the study area. On the whole, premarital counseling significantly and positively affected marital stability in the study area.