Spousal communication styles as determinant of marital harmony among academic staff of Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between spousal communication and marital harmony among academic staff of Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. Two research hypotheses guided the study. The population for this study comprised all academic staff of the institution. A sample of 100 respondents was selected using a simple random sampling technique. The Marital Harmony Scale was used as the research instrument. The validity of the instrument was established by two experts in the field with reliability coefficient of 0.89. Inferential statistics of regression analysis was used to test the null hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed a significant relationship between age and spousal communication on marital harmony. The study concluded that effective communication between spouses contributes significantly to marital stability. It was recommended that couples need to be engaged in open and honest communication to enhance relationship satisfaction, and that counselling services should be made available to support marital harmony among academic staff.