AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON MARRIAGE SUSTAINABILITY

AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON MARRIAGE SUSTAINABILITY

BACKGROUNG OF THE STUDY

Marriage is a formal and legal union of a man and a woman by which they become husband and wife [Addis et al 1993]. Marriage is contracted to provide a socially approved sexual and economic union, as a way of establishing a family of procreation, companionship, mutual assistance, peace and social cohesion and also to enhance social status of the couple among others (joseph f 2003). marriage sustainability entails the sum of the activities  married couples do to ensure that the marriage do not go into depletion nor go sour to the point of breaking the union (Torty V. 2019)  

The covid-19  pandemic brought changes in social behavior in the first three months after COVID-19 emerged Wuhan City, Hubei Province.  And it was finally declared as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 2020 (WHO 2020). Evidence indicates that COVID-19 transmitted through respiratory droplets via contact routes such as the mouth, nose, and conjunctiva or eyes (UNICEF 2020). However it was necessary for countries to effect total lockdown of virtually every type of gathering place, stay-at-home measures instituted to combat the spread of the virus, which forced many families and couples to live in much closer and continual contact than normally experienced.  This  affected adults living alone, whether those who opted never to marry or married and separated or divorced; and those who are considered “seniors” and are living alone because of the loss of a spouse(Richard S. 2020). while most marriages suffer due to economic hardship, others  due to inability of one spouse to provide for the family continuously lead to nagging, misunderstanding and at extreme violence among couples which stained the marriage relationship and more to their children if any.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The COVID-19 pandemic  resulted in individuals and groups modifying their actions and reactions. In Offa local government Kwara State Nigeria, the most common family structures are the single-parent family (particularly single-mother families), followed by step families and grandparent-led families. The impact of COVID-19 on these families and their social interactions is like the two sides of a coin, both positive and negative.A positive impact has been an increase in social interactions within the family, with parents spending more time with their children and spouse  due to the stay-at-home guidelines. On the other hand, negative impact on family structures and marriage interactions have led to domestic violence, disrupting former family structures with a ripple effect on communities. In some single parent families, cases of single mothers having illicit sexual relationship with men in a bid to get liitle fund to take care of themselves, and among married couples, the financial hardships often lead to couple fights, disrespect to the man as the family head, hunger among children  and  numerous disputes in the community. This is also true among stepchildren in step families. Owing to proximity, some step siblings have been caught in the act of incestuous relationships and sometimes stepfathers being erroneously accused. An increase in expenditure as a result of increase in price of commodities while family incomes reduce is painfully felt. Most families manage limited resources by skipping some meals. Another negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is on family members’ social interactions, where some members complained about others’ laziness and TV addiction. In polygamous families where wives are not staying in same community, husbands cannot travel due to government movement restrictions, which has led to emotional and psychological stress to other wives. Although husbands might try to keep in touch by calling via mobile phones, most co-wives are not happy about the situation. However it is against this backdrop that this research is set to examine the effect of covid-19 on marriage sustainability.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

This study is aimed at showing an empirical analysis of he effect of covid-19 and marriage sustainability. Specifically it is meant

1. To examine the impact of covid-19 on family structure
2. To determine ways which covid-19 affected marriage and family
3. To investigate the rate at which covid-19 affected marriage sustainability

1.4  Significance Of The Study

This study in general will contribute to the body of knowledge. Specifically it will equip families and couples on activities to engage in in order to strengthen family ties especially in pandemic situations in order to live happily and sustain their marriages. More so it will enable marriage counselors on developing strategies for happy family life and marriage sustainability. It will also aid the unmarried on the need for high preparedness before entering into any form of marriage relationship and family life consequently.

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