Factors Influencing Marital Conflict among Church Wedded Couples in Pentecostal Churches in Masinga Division, Machakos District, Kenya

Abstract

According to Walker (1979), marriages in Kenya are failing at a rate of one out of two. One of the main reasons for high divorce rate is that married people do not know the reason for their marriage; most people marry for selfish reasons. They marry because they believe marriage will satisfy some need in their lives. They want the security of marriage, the sexual pleasure, the companionship, to be affiliated to an influential family, to have children with an individual of a certain status, to earn child support and many other reasons. Getting into marriage with ill-motivated reasons leads to frustration and a lot of stress hence most marital conflict that continue to negatively affect institution of marriage and family. Literature reviewed suggests that marital conflict is a universal phenomena, couples cannot be productive when they are not sound in body, mind and spirit. The family which is the basic institution of society should not be neglected. The proposed study seeks to investigate factors influencing marital conflict. The study takes the form of case study design and qualitative research design. An Interview schedule and focus group discussion used to obtain data. The target group for this study were wedded couples in Pentecostal churches in Masinga Division, Machakos District, Kenya. All the wedded couples formed the study sample. Description data analysis was done by the use of the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS), frequencies and percentages were used to present data. It is hoped that results of this study will shed more light on the causes and factors responsible for marital conflict among some wedded couples in Masinga Division, Machakos District. This study is expected to assist couples to improve on their marriage and family relations. The first chapter presents introduction and background to the study, the problem statement. Chapter two presents theoretical models guiding the study as well as a review of related literature. Chapter three dealt with the methodology of the study including such areas as study area, study sample, data collection and data analysis. Chapter four presents the results of the findings, while chapter five provides a discussion, summary, conclusions and recommendations based on the findings.