The Levels of Psychological Well-Being among Married Couples in Selected Parishes in the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

A stable marriage is crucial for establishment of a prosperous community, but this depends on psychological well-being of the couples. This study investigated the levels of psychological well-being among couples in selected parishes in the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi (CAN), Kenya. The study was guided by Adlerian Theory and employed concurrent convergent mixed methods research design. The target population was 19,828 Catholic faithful, who have exchanged their marital vows in CAN within the last 5 to 25 years. A sample of 784 married men and women were selected by multistage sampling and used as respondents. The psychological well-being questionnaire was used to collect data, which were analyzed descriptively using frequency counts and percentages. Findings revealed that psychological well-being of the married couples was in three levels thus low, moderate and high. It is recommended that policy should be made by the government of Kenya through the office of the Attorney general by formulating a legal framework to ensure all newly married couples are trained on various aspects of psychological well-being so as to ensure stable marriage.