WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

*Biruk Gebretsadik Haile, Alice Munene

ABSTRACT

Premarital programs have been a popular strategy to reduce divorce rates and improve post marriage couple‘s satisfaction. They also provide couples with the tools they need to improve communication and problem solving and reduce conflicts by addressing unrealistic expectations. The main objective of this study was to establish the prevalence of unrealistic marital expectations among the premarital couples from selected churches in Nairobi, Kenya. Prevalence of unrealistic marital expectations was also determined by use of frequency across various sociodemographic characteristics such as age, gender, year of education and dating period. Purposive sampling method was used to select participants of the study (n=118) who were screened for marital expectations at baseline. Data was collected using Marital Expectations Questionnaire (MEQ) which was a self-administered questionnaire. The findings of the study showed that 89 (75.4%) of the study‘s participants had high (unrealistic) marital expectations, followed by 23 (19.5%) who had realistic expectations and then 6 (5.1%) had low marital expectations. This portrayed that most respondents view marriage with idealistic or elevated hopes perhaps regarding love, support, happiness or partnership roles. This may have implications for marital satisfaction, counseling relationship or attitudes especially if those high expectations are not met in reality. Sociodemographic characteristics such as years of education and length of dating were found to have a significant association with marital expectations. Individuals with fewer years of education were more likely to hold realistic marital expectations. Participants who had been in a relationship for 1.2 to 3 years were also more likely to exhibit high or unrealistic expectations about marriage. These findings suggest that both educational background and dating period play important roles in shaping how individuals perceive and anticipate married life. The study recommended that premarital programs should focus not only on communication and conflict training, but also on helping couples develop realistic and balanced expectation about marriage.