Catholic Premarital Education Programme and Its Relevance to Marriage Stability in Kisumu Arch-Diocese, Western Kenya

Abstract

Marriage is an important human institution linked to a variety of motives. It is, for instance, associated with the need for friendship, social and emotional support, love, and sex and companionship. Similarly, the problems encountered in second marriages often prompt those haunted by the memories of a first marriage to divorce. A number of studies in sub-Saharan Africa have suggested a rise in divorce. A sizable proportion of African women are married by age 20, and that by age 40, most women are divorced. The purpose of this study was therefore to assess the Catholic Premarital Preparation Programme and its relevance to marital stability in the catholic Archdiocese of Kisumu. Specifically, the study sought to determine the extent to which the Catholic Premarital Education Programmes contribute to marital stability in the Arch-Diocese of Kisumu, Analyze the relationship between the themes of Premarital Education programmes to the status of marital stability in the Arch-Diocese of Kisumu, Assess the capacity of the Premarital Education programmes agents to foster marital stability in the Catholic Arch-diocese of Kisumu, Explore the extent to which Catholic premarital education programme reduce the perceived social difference between couples in the Catholic Arch-diocese of Kisumu. The study was founded on the theory of dialectics by Rob Anderson. Descriptive Survey research design was used to have an in depth focuses of this study. With a population of 600 couples who had undergone the Premarital Education Programme in the diocese, and a sample size of 188 respondents, the study employed purposive sampling technique, whereby the parishes where the Programme had been implemented were purposively selected to form the sample size. The tools appropriate for this study were questionnaires, observation and document analysis. In order to test for validity and reliability, the study employed a test retest and Pearson product moment correlation with a test sample outside the study sample. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 20 and presented in descriptive statistics and narration. The study findings are meant to benefit the Christian church in general in designing appropriate curricula and learning environment that facilitates the learners to cope with marriage stability. The study found that 82% of the respondents felt that the programme was satisfactory and that 90% of them had been given the programme curriculum. However, there was much gap in terms of the programme implementers who did not have enough competencies to effectively deliver the programme. The study therefore concluded that, the preparation process does not follow the expected regulation because most of the programme implementers were not prepared for the job. This probably explains poor preparation of couples and their inability to cope with marriage life thereafter. The study then recommended that the church should invest heavily in training her premarital agents to effectively deliver and meet the expected output.