Hours and Years in Employment Marital Adjustment Among Women: Implications for Family Stability

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of hours and years in employment on marital adjustment among married employed women in Ekiti state, South West Nigeria. The population of the study was all educated, married and employed women in the state. The sample consisted of 897 women, selected through stratified random sampling techniques from 10 local government areas. The instrument, a questionnaire tagged “Marital Adjustment Questionnaire” was designed and validated by the researcher. Two null hypotheses were postulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The data collected were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results of the analyses revealed that there was a significant difference in marital adjustment of the employed women with different number of hours per day. However, there was no significant difference in marital adjustment of the women based on the number of years spent in employment. Further analysis showed that in relation to hours in employment, there were significant differences in companionship and agreement on basic values of life. Also, there were no significant differences in affectionate intimacy and accommodation of the spouses based on hours spent in employment per day. Companionship had a significant result while affectionate intimacy, agreement on basic values or life and accommodation had no significant result based on the number of years in employment. The findings were discussed and recommendations made towards improvement of marital adjustment of married employed women.