Malaysian Journal Of Psychiatry, June 2018, Vol. 27, No.

ORIGINAL PAPER

The Association between Socio-Demographic Characteristics and

Marital Satisfaction among Nurses in Benin, Nigeria
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Olaide Nathaniel Koleoso, Israel Odunmayowa Aina, Enobakhare Uwadiae

Department of Mental Health, University of Benin Teaching Hospital,

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Benin City, Nigeria

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the potential socio-
demographic characteristics (age, job experience, educational attainment and
length of marriage) that could contribute to marital satisfaction among
Nigerian nurses. Method: This study utilised a cross-sectional survey design
and data were collected from 181 (173 female and 8 male) respondents
selected through the purposive sampling technique at the University of Benin
Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria. The mean age was 35.39 years (SD =
8.65, range = 21-59 years). Nurses completed a questionnaire consisting of the
Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (α = .62). Results: There was a significant
difference between the degree-holder nurses and the holders of each of the
other two certificates (Registered nurse and Registered Midwife) on marital
satisfaction. However, age, job experience, and length of marriage did not
significantly influence marital satisfaction. Conclusion: Educational
attainment is an important factor to be considered by employers of labour,
clinicians, guidance counsellors, family life educators and nurses
experiencing conflict between paid work and family life which affecting their
marital satisfaction.

Keywords: Staff Nurses, Marital Satisfaction, Socio-Demographic

Characteristics, Nigeria

Introduction constant divorce rate of approximately 50%

among married couples [4], with about half
Marital satisfaction is an overall evaluation of these instances of divorce taking place
of the state of one’s marriage and a within the first 7-8 years of marriage5. Just
reflection of marital happiness and function one third of married persons report being
[1]. It has been broadly examined in several “very happy” with their marriage, which is
studies of marriage and family. Family life down more than half from 25 years ago [5].
and marital satisfaction, in particular, are According to Animasahun and Oladeni, the
known as main predictors of overall quality condition could be worse in Nigeria,
of life [2,3]. In the United States, the most particularly in Lagos, where marital
prominent pointer to couple distress is a relationships are being broken on a daily

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 Malaysian Journal Of Psychiatry, June 2018, Vol. 27, No. 1

basis. Some divorce cases in 2005 at Grade frequently affected by workplace stress and
“A” customary court, Somolu Local that this can affect their physical and mental
Government Area, Lagos showed that five health [15].
(5) of the eight (8) cases (62.5%) ended up
in divorce. One (1) of the eight cases Understanding the fundamental elements
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(12.5%) did not end up in divorce; while that lead to marital satisfaction is essential
two (2) of the eight (8) cases (25%) were yet for identifying how to approach couples
to be decided [6]. This shows that marital seeking treatment for distress in their
relationships are in a serious mess. marriages [16]. Individuals go into marriage
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with the intention of having a blissful

Relationship researchers have suggested that marriage, which is conceived as a successful
nearly all, if not all, couples go through marriage. It is important to study those
different phases that cause important characteristics that can be relevant to marital
suffering and put individuals at jeopardy [7]. satisfaction in order to determine what
Marital satisfaction can have an effect on variables could potentially predict the effect
not only the physical and mental health of of marital success. In this study, the
both spouses [8,9], but also on children’s potential socio-demographic characteristics
development, well-being, academic that could contribute to marital satisfaction
performance, social skills, and relationships are explored in an effort to better understand
[10,11]. Each couple brings a set of the marital dyad, especially variables that
expectations, personality dynamics, a contribute to its success.
particular level of emotional or physical
health and family background into the Many studies have revealed that marital
marriage. What determines marital satisfaction is higher in men than in women
satisfaction for the couple is how these [17,18,19]. Since Jessie Bernard’s
components unite and interrelate with one provocative thesis that men achieve greater
another [12]. benefits from being married than women, a
wide range of studies has examined gender
Professionals like nurses are, to a large differences in marriage [17]. On the basis of
extent, prone to have feeling of being Bernard’s convincing statement, researchers
displeased and discontented with marital on family have accepted that women
relationship, as they are employed in a consistently experience significantly less
demanding occupation, which is further marital satisfaction than men [20]. For
complicated by shift duty, long hours of instance, one group of scholars reported that
duty and insufficient remuneration [13]. “women consistently report lower marital
Nursing personnel are subject to quality than men in national surveys” [21].
psychological stress as a consequence of Definitely, several studies have established
shift rotation, extended work schedules, and that wives reports of marital satisfaction are
prolonged contact with irritable and significantly lower than husbands
depressed patients. Research on the [22,23,24,25]. Other studies, nevertheless,
physical, psychological and medical effects have found no gender differences [26,27].
of night work agreed that if night shift work For example, using national probability data
is repeatedly performed, it causes harmful from the National Study of Families and
effects on the health and family life of Households, Guger and Sanchez found no
workers, whether male or female [14]. Cole significant differences in the mean levels of
and Nelson claim that 93% of nurses are

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 Malaysian Journal Of Psychiatry, June 2018, Vol. 27, No. 1

husbands’ and wives’ marital satisfaction with their marriage than those with a high
[28]. school diploma [34]. Heaton found that
education negatively correlated with
It is widely accepted that, as we age, our divorce, unless the woman had more
marital relationships can offer emotional education than her spouse [43]. Heaton
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support and operate as a priceless basis of furthermore found that women with
positive affect. Carstensen’s theory of education higher than their husbands’ had a
socio-emotional selectivity postulates that an greater probability to have marriage that
important goal of late life is to enhance ended in divorce [43]. As women become
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emotional closeness in our significant more educated, they gain more power in the
personal relationships [29]. As a result; relationship and see more alternatives for
older individuals regulate their emotions their lives [44]. Broman discovered that
such that emotional benefits will increase. In wife’ educational level and having a higher
the study conducted by Weinstein et al. age income than their husbands’ among Blacks
was positively associated with marital is a factor commonly projected to affect
satisfaction, with age ranging from young marital quality [45].
adult to early middle age [30]. This is
consistent with a few other studies Zainah et al. found that the longer the
[31,32,33] who have found positive duration of marriage, the more satisfied the
association between age, as evident in individual was with his or her marriage.
length, and marital happiness. Their study claimed that couples who had
been married for 10 years and above
On the contrary, Edwards established that reported a better satisfaction in their
participants who were less than 45 years of marriage compared to couples who were less
age reported significantly greater than 10 years in marriage. These authors
satisfaction with their marriages than those assert that older couples in marriage may
who were more than 45 years old [34]. have passed the stage of adjustment and
However, a study among the newly wedded adaptation and will experience less
couples in Nigeria showed that age did not psychological problems and distress [46].
have a significant effect on marital
satisfaction [35]. Early cross-sectional surveys of marital
satisfaction suggested that marital
There are a number of studies suggesting satisfaction declines steadily during the first
that the quality of marital relationships is 10 years of marriage [47,48,49,50]. In view
positively associated with partners’ of these findings, a continuing decline in
education 36,37,38,39,40]. In the same vein, marital satisfaction over the course of
Adler found that educational level is not a marriage might be expected. However,
correlate of marital satisfaction [7], as more recent surveys, which included
measured by the Dyadic Adjustment Scale marriages of longer duration, revealed a
[41]. different picture. Marital satisfaction
appeared to follow a curvilinear path over
Creighton-Zollar and Williams found no the course of marriage [51,52,53,54],
association between education and marital starting high, dropping sharply after the
quality of Blacks [42]. Edwards, however, birth of children, reaching an all-time low
found that participants with less than a high level when children leave home and couples
school diploma reported greater satisfaction retire [55].

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 Malaysian Journal Of Psychiatry, June 2018, Vol. 27, No. 1

While some cross-sectional studies with range of 21-59 years ( X = 35.39, SD =

spouses at varying marital durations 8.65). This study was approved by the
revealed that marital satisfaction follows a Ethics and Research Committee of the
curvilinear path, waning from high levels at institutions before data collection ensued.
the start of marriage and the returning to The married nurses who participated in this
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near newlywed levels in the later years of study were given a detached informed
marriage [56,57], other studies showed consent document that described the current
further stableness in marital satisfaction on a research, the minimal risks involved, and
high, moderate, or low level [58] or contact information on the investigators.
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indicated that marital quality decreases with The participants were informed that taking
age [59]. part in the study was voluntary and that
precautions had been taken to ensure
Despite the growing attention to work and anonymity. Furthermore, the participants
family issues in the general occupational were told of their right to withdraw from the
health literature, there is paucity of research study at any time they feel like not
investigating these issues among health care continuing.
providers most especially the nursing
profession. This study aims to begin to fill Measures
this gap by examining the socio-
demographic characteristics as predictors of Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale: The
marital satisfaction among nurses in Benin Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale ((RDAS)
City, Nigeria. As a result of the above [60] is a self-report questionnaire that
discussions, the following hypothesis were assesses seven dimensions of couple
formulated and tested: there will be a relationships within three overarching
significant effect of age on marital categories, including consensus in decision-
satisfaction; nurses who have had longer making, value and affection, satisfaction in
period of job experience will exhibit higher the relationship with respect to stability and
marital satisfaction than other nurses who conflict regulation, and cohesion as seen
have had medium and shorter periods of job through activities and discussion. The
experience; nurses with university degree RDAS includes only 14 items on marital
will report significantly higher satisfaction satisfaction, each of which asks the
with their marriage than nurses with respondents to rate certain aspects of his/her
Registered Nurse and Midwife certificates; relationship on a 5- or 6-point scale. Scores
and nurses with longer length of marriage on the RDAS range from 0 to 69, with
will experience significantly greater marital higher scores indicating greater relationship
satisfaction than nurses with both medium satisfaction and lower score indicating
and shorter lengths of marriage. greater relationship distress. The RDAS
appears to have excellent test-retest
Methods reliability. For the total RDAS, Cronbach’s
Alpha was reported to be ’90. Construct
Participants and Procedure validity for the RDAS is supported by its
high correlation (.68, <.01) with a similar
One hundred and eighty one (181) married measure, the Locke-Wallace Marital
nurses were conveniently selected from the Adjustment Test (MAT). The coefficient
University of Benin Teaching Hospital alpha for this study was .62
(UBTH), Benin City, Nigeria, with age

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 Malaysian Journal Of Psychiatry, June 2018, Vol. 27, No. 1

Statistical Analysis the different departments in the hospital.

The sample comprised 8 men (4.4%) and
The information obtained from the 173 women (95.8%). The average age of
questionnaire was entered into a computer the participants was 35.39 years (SD = 8.65,
program, Statistical Package for the Social range = 21-59 yrs.). In terms of their self-
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Sciences (SPSS). The data was analyzed by reported demographics, 40 nurses had
use of descriptive statistics, percentages and Registered Nursing Certificate (n = 40),
means. Other analyses included reliability while 23 had Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing
assessment of the dependent scales (n = 23, 12.7%). With respect to self-
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(Cornbrash’s alpha), and one way ANOVA reported job experiences, 109 had less than
to determine the influence of age, length of 10 years’ working experience (n = 109,
marriage, job experience and educational 60.2%); 54 had between 11 and 20 years’
level on marital satisfaction. working experience (n = 54, 29.8%); and 18
had more than 21 years’ working experience
Results (n = 18, 9.9%). A majority of the nurses (n
= 117, 64.6) had married for less than 10
The participants in this study were 181 years; 45 (24.9%) had been married for
married nurses who were staff at the between 11 and 20 years; while 19 (10.5%)
University of Benin Teaching Hospital, had been married for more than 21 years
Benin City. These nurses were attached to (Table 1).

Table 1. Demographics descriptions of study participants

Sample Demographics Total (%) n
Gender Male 4.4 8
Female 95.6 173
Less than 30 years 35.9 65
Age 31 to 40 years 36.5 66
41 to 50 years 22.7 41
50 years and Above 5.0 9
Shorter Job Experience 60.2 109
Job Experience Medium Job Experience 29.8 54
Longer Job Experience 9.9 18
Registered Nurse 22.1 40
Educational Levels Midwife 65.2 118
Graduate Nurse 12.7 23
Shorter Length of Marriage 64.6 117
Lengths of Marriage Medium Length of Marriage 24.9 45
Longer Length of Marriage 10.5 19

The results of the hypotheses tested are The first hypothesis, which states that there
presented in this section. This study will be a significant effect of age on marital
examined the influence of socio- satisfaction, was tested using One-way
demographic variables (age, job experience, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). This is
educational attainment and length of because we wanted to determine whether
marriage) on marital satisfaction. The there were any significant differences
results are presented in this section. among the mean of the four age groups (<30

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 Malaysian Journal Of Psychiatry, June 2018, Vol. 27, No. 1

years, 31 to 40 years, 41 to 50 years and >50 statistically significant differences across the
years) in this study. As shown in Table 2, it four age groups used for this study. [F
can be ascertained that there was no (3,177) = .28, p >.05].

Table 2. Descriptive scores for all variables according to some demographic variables
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Variables Levels X (SD) p-value (ANOVA)

Less than 30 years 46.62 (7.56)a
31 to 40 years 46.36 (9.57)a
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Age 41 to 50 years 46.90 (8.78)a 0.838

50 years and Above 44.00 (10.00)a
Shorter Job Experience 46.05 (8.46)a
Job Experience Medium Job Experience 47.50 (8.66)a 0.574
Longer Job Experience 45.83 (10.21)a
Registered Nurse 48.02 (8.23)a
Educational Levels Midwife 44.53 (8.12)a <0.001
Graduate Nurse 53.65 (8.18)b
Shorter Length of Marriage 46.33 (8.63)a
Lengths of Marriage Medium Length of Marriage 46.31 (8.41)a 0.839
Longer Length of Marriage 47.58 (9.91)a
Mean with the same superscripts (a, b, c) are not significantly different (p > 0.05)

Hypothesis two states that nurses who have Registered Midwife) on marital satisfaction
had longer period of job experience will [F(2,178) = 13.02, p < .01].
exhibit higher marital satisfaction than other
nurses who have had medium and shorter To determine the direction of significant
period of job experience. This hypothesis difference, a post hoc test (Duncan) was
was tested using One-way Analysis of carried out for marital satisfaction. The
Variance (ANOVA) and the result is result of the post hoc test showed that the
presented in Table 2. From this table, it can mean score of nurses with the university
be observed that there were no significant degrees ( X = 53.65) was significantly
statistical differences across the three higher in marital satisfaction than the mean
periods of job experiences used for this scores for those who were Registered Nurses
study [F(2,178) = .56, p > .05].
( X = 48.02) and Midwives ( X = 44.53).
The third hypothesis, which postulates that However, the mean scores for the holders of
nurses with university degree will report the other two certificates: Registered Nurse
significantly higher satisfaction with their and Registered Midwife were not
marriage than the nurses with Registered statistically different from each other on
Nurse and Midwife certificates, was tested marital satisfaction.
using One-way Analysis of Variance
(ANOVA). As shown in Table 2, the result The last hypothesis states that nurses with
indicated that there was a significant longer length of marriage will experience
difference between the degree-holder nurses significantly greater marital satisfaction than
and holders of each of the other two nurses with both medium and shorter lengths
certificates (Registered Nurse and of marriage. The result of the One-way

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 Malaysian Journal Of Psychiatry, June 2018, Vol. 27, No. 1

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) used to test regard to shift, long hours of duty and low
this hypothesis is also presented in Table 2. payment [13].
Based on the results in this table, it can be
concluded that there was no statistically Hypothesis three was confirmed. In line
significant difference across the three groups with the prediction, the results demonstrated
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of length of marriage, [F (2,178) = .18, p > that nurses with university degrees reported
.05]. greater marital satisfaction than nurses with
either Registered Nursing certificates or
Discussion Registered Midwife certificates. According
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to Tampieri, acquiring higher education has

The result with regard to hypothesis one several advantages at work – a better kind of
showed that age did not significantly affect job, a better salary and more bargaining
marital satisfaction. This finding is in line power in the job market. All these
with another study among the newly wedded advantages are expressed by a greater job
couples in Nigeria, which revealed that age satisfaction. It also increases the chances of
did not have a significant effect on marital marrying an educated partner, as the
satisfaction [35]. However, these finding are educational levels of partners are strongly
contrary to what other authors have interrelated [61]. Heaton found that
reported. According to Carstensen, older education was negatively correlated with
individuals regulate their emotions such that divorce, unless the woman had more
emotional benefits will accrue [29]. In the education than her spouse [43].
same vein, Weinstein et al. claim that age
was positively associated with marital The last hypothesis was not confirmed. The
satisfaction with age ranging from young result suggested that length of marriage did
adult to early middle age [30]. This is not determine marital satisfaction.
consistent with a few other studies Corroborating the finding in this study,
[31,32,33] that found positive association Osiki, who investigated the effect of marital
between age, as evident in length, and duration, among others, on marital
marital happiness. happiness, found that marital duration of
married couples did not have any direct
Furthermore, hypothesis two was also not relationship with the level of marital
significant. The hypothesized relationship satisfaction [62]. The findings in this study,
was informed by the fact that 98% of nurses is, however, at variance with several other
have been found to be frequently affected by studies. Most newly married couples
workplace stress that can affect their reported very high satisfaction and any
physical and mental health [15]. Therefore, change from that point would probably be in
one would have expected those nurses who a downward direction [63]. In a longitudinal
have long been on the job to have the study, Huston et al. found a substantial
tendency to develop job burnout which can decline in reported marital satisfaction
latter impact negatively on their marital during the first year of marriage [64]. Glenn
processes at the home compared to those estimated that marital satisfaction, as
who were new on the job. According to indicated by the percentage of people who
Abdul Azeez, professionals like nurses are claimed that their marriages were “very
much prone to have dissatisfaction from happy”, decreased steadily for at least the
marital relationship, as they are engaged in a first 10 years and maybe for 25 years or
stressful job which has complications with longer [65]. However, Zainah et al. aver

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 Malaysian Journal Of Psychiatry, June 2018, Vol. 27, No. 1

that the longer the duration of marriage, the obtained could be used to improve existing
more satisfied the individual is with his or theories of marital satisfaction or could be
her marriage. Their study noted that couples added to current marital satisfaction models.
who had been married for 10 years and Practically, marital satisfaction studies are
above reported a better satisfaction in their extremely useful in improving the quality of
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marriage than couples who were less than 10 life, happiness, contentment and satisfaction
years in marriage. They claim that older within marriage. Marital satisfaction has
couples in marriage may have passed the been considered to be the health, well-being,
stage of adjustment and adaptation and will and stability of marriage [67]. By pointing
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experience less psychological problems and out the characteristics involved in increasing
distress [46]. or decreasing marital satisfaction, employers
of labour, clinicians, guidance counselors,
This study is not without limitations. The family life educators and individuals
sample is not representative of the Nigerian experiencing conflict between paid work
population; therefore, the results may not be and family life can work towards reducing
confidently generalized to the population at or promoting them. An example would be to
large. Also, only those nurses working in have family groups for these couples to
government hospitals were selected to be express their problems and concerns as well
included in the sample. If significant as find healthy and effective ways to deal
differences exist between nurses working with their negative marital relationships.
with government and nurses working with in
private hospitals/clinics was not explored. References
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Corresponding Author
Dr. Olaide N. Koleoso
Department of Mental Health,
University of Benin Teaching Hospital,
YQp/IlQrHD3i3D0OdRyi7TvSFl4Cf3VC1y0abggQZXdgGj2MwlZLeI= on 06/07/2023

Benin City, Nigeria

Email: [email protected]

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