Personality Traits and Socio-demographic Factors as Predictors of Divorce Proneness Among Couples Seeking Divorce in Court in Ilorin
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Date
2019-09
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ilorin
Abstract
This study investigated personality traits and social demographics as predictors of
divorce proneness among couples seeking divorce in court in Ilorin, Nigeria. It
adopted a survey method utilizing expo-facto design. 150 participants were sampled
purposively. A structure questionnaire comprises of Marital Instability Index and Big
Five Ten-item Personality Traits Inventory was utilized to assess divorce proneness
and personality traits respectively. Results showed that female respondents (M=43.07,
S.D= 3.01) were not significantly different in the scores of divorce proneness
compared to male respondents (M=42.08, S.D =3.01). However, there was no
significant difference between male and female on divorce proneness (t(148)=-1.790,
p>.05). There was a significant joint influence of extraversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, openness and neuroticism on divorce proneness [F(5,144)=5.01,
2
R =.148; p<.05] with those variables accounting for 15% of the variance in divorce
proneness. Further results showed that extraversion (β=-.405; p<.05),
conscientiousness (β=-.582; p<.01); openness (β=-.439; p<.05) and neuroticism
(β=.337; p<.05), did significantly predicted divorce proneness. While agreeableness
(β=-.174; p>.05) did not significantly predict divorce proneness. The study, thus,
recommends that governments should formulate policies or programs that will
facilitate awareness on the need for self-understanding of individual personalities as
couples; court should seek psychosocial intervention from experts as alternative to
divorce to foster a better marital stability in Nigeria
Description
Keywords
Marriage, Couple, Personality Traits, Gender, Divorce Proneness, Court, Ilorin