Religious affiliation, spirituality and communication as factors in marital harmony

Abstract

Harmony in marital relationship is central to the well being of married persons. Yet, studies investigating marital harmony are almost non-existent. This cross-sectional survey was designed to determine whether marital harmony would have relationship with religious affiliation, spirituality and communication. One hundred and sixty-eight (168) married persons were randomly drawn from among civil servants and non-civil servants at the Secretariat of a state in Southeast of Nigeria. Their age range was 24 – 60 (M = 41.34; SD = 8.62) years. The Spiritual Valence Scale was used to assess spirituality; Dyadic Communication Scale was used to measure communication, whereas the Marital Harmony Scale was used to measure marital harmony. It was found that spirituality and communication correlated positively with marital harmony. The results of a multiple regression analysis of the data showed that marital harmony was positively predicted by spirituality and communication. Highlighted were the pivotal roles of mature spirituality as well as communication in marital harmony