Cohabitation among the catholic youths in Nyando deanery, Kisumu diocese, Kisumu County
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Date
2018-06
Authors
Wamukoya, Jackline M.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Cohabitation is a common practice in many parts of the world including America,
Europe and Africa. Cohabitation violates the teaching of the Catholic Church on
the sacrament of marriage. In spite of the efforts by the Catholic Church to instill
chastity, many youths in the Catholic Church do not go through church marriage,
instead they choose to cohabit. The main objective of this study was to assess the
prevalence of cohabitation among the Catholic youths in Nyando Deanery; Kisumu
Diocese, Kenya. Other objectives of the study were to evaluate the Catholic Church
teachings on chastity, and to identify the factors leading to cohabitation among the
Catholic youths in Nyando Deanery. The conceptual framework of this study was
derived from Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory. The target population was
2022 which comprised of 2000 youths and 22 church leaders. The sample
population consisted of 210 participants who were sampled through the simple
random sampling technique from five parishes in Nyando deanery. The survey
design with the use of questionnaires was adopted to gather information from the
respondents. Interviews and Focus Group Discussions were also used. The
quantitative data was analyzed by the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences
(SPSS) using frequencies, percentages, means and Chi-Square test of significance.
The study found that the Catholic Church teaches about chastity and marriage as a
sacrament and that there is a relationship between church teachings on chastity and
cohabitation (χ2 = 4.973; p = 0.018). The study also found that significant numbers
of the youth were cohabiting which depicts the high prevalence of cohabiting
practices among the youth. Some of the reasons for cohabitation include influence
from the family background, peers and education level. On economic situation of
the youth in the Church and cohabitation, the study concludes that being employed
or being unemployed had an influence on cohabitation. The study recommends that
the Catholic Church should strengthen its structures on premarital counseling to the
youth so that they can embrace church marriage. Future studies should be done on
socio-demographic factors influencing cohabitation among the Catholic youths.
Other studies can also be done on the attitude and perception of youths on
cohabitation.
Description
A thesis submitted to the school of humanities and social sciences in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Arts of Kenyatta University. June, 2018