Marriage Counselling, Self-Disclosure and Commitment as Correlates of Marital Stability among Married Female Guidance and Counselling Post-Graduate Students in South-East Nigeria

In this study of relationship among Marriage Counselling, Self-Disclosure, Commitment and Marital Stability among Married Female Guidance and Counselling Post-Graduate Students in South-East Nigeria were examined. The correlation research survey design of ex-post facto type was adopted. The population for this study consisted of all Married Female Guidance and Counselling Post-Graduate Students in South-East Nigeria. Two hundred Married Female Guidance and Counselling Post-Graduate students were selected purposively from five randomly selected public Universities in South-East Nigeria. Four Standardized instruments were used for collection of research data. Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression Analysis statistical tools at 0.05 level of significance were used for data analysis. The result indicates that significant relationship exists between the independent variables and the dependent variable (marital stability) in order of magnitude as thus: marriage counselling (R=0.446, p<0.05), self-disclosure (R=0.382, p<0.05) and commitment (R=0.293, p<0.05). The three independent variables (marriage counselling, self-disclosure and commitment) made a joint correlational impact of 65.5% on marital stability among married female guidance and counselling post-graduate students. Also, the result of the analysis of multiple regression produced an F-ratio of: F (3/196) = 69.21; which was significant at p<0.05 alpha level on dependent variable (marital stability). Likewise, marriage counselling had the highest relative correlation impact on marital stability (β=0.341) followed by self-disclosure (β=0.298) and then commitment (β=0.212) made the least contribution. Marriage counselling significantly correlates with dependent variable, r (198) = 0.446, p<.05. Also, self-disclosure significantly correlates with marriage stability, r (198) = 0.382, p<.05. Likewise, commitment correlates significantly with marital stability, r (198) = 0.293, p<.05. It was recommended that Married Female Guidance and Counselling Post-Graduate students should be exposed to counseling interventions that would help them develop the capacity for the level of resilience needed to maintain a stable and harmonious marriage.