GENDER ROLE ORIENTATION, RELIGIOSITY, AND SELF DETERMINATION AS PREDICTORS OF MARITAL SATISFACTION AMONG HETEROSEXUAL COUPLES

GENDER ROLE ORIENTATION, RELIGIOSITY, AND SELF DETERMINATION AS PREDICTORS OF MARITAL SATISFACTION AMONG HETEROSEXUAL COUPLES

ABSTRACT

This study investigated gender role orientation, religiosity, and self-determination as predictors of marital satisfaction among married couples. Participants were one hundred and eighty seven (187) married couples, drawn from three religions namely Christianity, Islam and African Traditional Religion. Their ages ranged from 21 years to 50 years, and were categorized. Cross Sectional design was adopted. Four instruments were used for data collection; Bem Sex role Inventory Short Form, Basic Need Satisfaction in General Scale, Index of Marital Satisfaction and Religious Commitment Inventory-10. Three hypotheses were tested. Hierarchical multiple regression was the main statistic used for data analysis. Results of the regression analysis indicated that gender role orientation (p< .001), religiosity (p<.05), intrapersonal (p<.05), self-determination (p<.001),autonomy (p<.01), as well as competence (p<.001) all were shown to be significant predictors of marital satisfaction among couples. Interpersonal dimension of religiosity and relatedness dimension of self-determination were not significant predictors of marital satisfaction among couples. One nascent implication of this finding is that couples seeing themselves as one other than strictly emphasizing on gender role will increase rate of marital satisfaction in our society. Other implications were also stated, limitations and suggestions for further studies were made.