Marital Distress among Police Personnel in Awka Metropolis: The Influence of Argument and Self-efficacy

Abstract

The study investigated whether argument and self-efficacy would have an influence on marital distress among police personnel. A total number of one hundred and ninety-seven (197), Nigeria police force (NPF) personnel working in Police headquarters; served as participants for the study. They were selected using non-probability sampling (convenient sampling techniques). They consist of 87(44.2%) females and 110 (58.5%) males; their age ranged from 22-51 years and their mean age was 34.94 with standard deviation of 6.96. Three instruments were used namely: Marital Stress Inventory, Argumentativeness Scale and General Self-Efficacy Scale. Two by Two Factorial design was adopted. Two Way Analysis of Variance statistics was used to analyze the data.  Two hypotheses were tested: the result indicated that hypothesis one which stated that there will be a significant difference between those with positive argument and those with negative argument on marital distress among police personnel and hypothesis two which stated that there will be a significant difference between those with positive self-efficacy and those with negative self-efficacy on marital distress among police personnel were both not accepted at p>.05. Therefore, the study recommended that counselling/marital psychologist should intensify their efforts to organize seminars/conferences on the implications of these factors (argument and self-efficacy) on marital distress among police personnel.