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Journal of Psychological Research | Volume 02 | Issue 04 | October 2020
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Journal of Psychological Research
https://ojs.bilpublishing.com/index.php/jpr
ARTICLE
Marital Stress and Married Working Women in Nigeria: the Role of
Coping Strategies, Self-Concept and Educational Qualication
Tonia Chigozie Nwatu*
Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Nigeria
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT
Article history
Received: 10 November 2020
Accepted: 8 December 2020
Published Online: 30 December 2020
In this 21st century a lot of women are experiencing marital challenges
due to the various and important roles they perform in the home and in the
society, which may require some psychological remedies. The research was
on marital stress and married working women: the role of coping strategies,
self-concept and educational qualication. Three hundred and seventy-sev-
en (377) participants whose ages were between 25 to 55 years (mean 40.63
and SD 7.59) participated in the study. Three research instruments were
used for data collection while three-way Analysis of Variance was used
for data analysis. Result disclosed that emotion-focused strategies yielded
less manifestation of marital stress (1, 369) = 4.44, sig. = .036; in the same
manner, those with higher educational qualication presented less manifes-
tation of marital stress (1, 369) = 6.33, sig. = .012. It was equally specied
that coping strategies together with self-concept had a joint impact on mar-
ital stress (1, 369) = 5.88, sig. = .016; a joint inuence was also observed
between self-concept and educational qualification on marital stress (1,
369) = 4.18, sig. = .042. Hence, married working women should strive for
higher education and also use emotion-focused coping strategies in dealing
with marital stress.
Keywords:
Problem-focused coping
Emotion-focused coping
Higher Educational Qualication
Lower educational qualication and manifesta-
tions of marital stress
*Corresponding Author:
Tonia Chigozie Nwatu,
Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Nigeria;
Email: toniaksly@yahoo.co
1. Introduction
The globalization of the world opened up the hu-
man horizon in all aspects of existence. Societies
that were seemingly closed are beginning to be
opening up. Women (particularly married women) in most
societies, especially in Africa who were confined to the
home as housewives are now taking up jobs outside their
homes. Thus, they perform reproductive, domestic and
productive duties. For instance, in the African traditional
family settings, sex roles were defined; men were sole-
ly in- charge of providing for the family. Women on the
other hand, were responsible for child bearing and house
chores. The recent happening is that everyone whether
man or woman works tirelessly in order to provide for
the family. Also, the researcher has encountered and is
still encountering marital stress mostly from home and
in work place, her interaction with other men and wom-
en proved that it seems everyone is experiencing marital
stress at varied degrees. Manifestation of marital stress is
a situation where some issues in marriage interact with the
job requirements to exert some psychological discomforts
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Journal of Psychological Research | Volume 02 | Issue 04 | October 2020
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on married workers especially women. A woman who is
gainfully employed or self-employed may show cognitive
sign of stress by procrastinating some of her sex-roles like
when to start giving birth as to retain her job. Situations
like this may cause a woman to post date when to com-
mence child birth and or how to take care of her children
which may lead to disagreement especially if the spouse
is not supportive. But when women receive affectionate
behaviour from their partners, it lessens their worries and
fears which increases their marital satisfaction [1]. To fur-
ther portray the frustration, some women may show some
signs of agitation, inability to relax, etc. which may lead
to marital stress. As problems persist, communications
generally become more difcult. Marital stress may affect
couples as follows: chronic sickness, misperception, and
uncontrollable crisis that may lead to divorce or separa-
tion.
Marital stress adverse outcomes were caused primarily
by deficits in problem-solving, and also from a combi-
nation of factors like enduring vulnerabilities, stressful
events and poor adaptive processes [2]. Enduring vulner-
abilities in the sense that some persons have a problem-
atic personality such as neuroticism and also are from
violent family background, such persons if married may
be predisposed to suffer marital stress. Stressful events
as seen in the above denition are characterized by some
vital events like getting married and or getting a new job
while poor adaptive processes entail lack of support from
one’s spouse and lack of adequate problem-solving skills.
According to [3] marital stress involves issues of minor
life events like time spent together, lack of frequent com-
munication, inadequate money or foodstuff in the house,
etc. They stressed that these minor impacts culminate into
marital stress especially when the source is external (hap-
pening outside the marriage but bearing its effect on the
family). In African setting where communal kind of life-
style is still predominant minor issues like quarrels from
the in-laws can bring about stress in marital unions among
couples. Again, [4] assumes that stress occurs in any of
these three contexts: when people experience loss of re-
sources, when resources are threatened or when people
invest their resources without subsequent gain. Examples
of these resources include: home, clothing, employment,
skills, etc.
The consequences of marital stress on married working
women especially when the spousal support is limited
are enormous. The woman may neglect some of her core
sex-roles, including physical look thus resulting to lesser
attraction to her husband. This factor may increase the
emergence of the woman sharing the husband with other
side wives or chicks, begetting other step children and
even losing the husband completely to other competitors.
There could be issues with effective communication since
the woman spends sometime in the work place, the hus-
band may utilize this opportunity badly which may result
in another relationship mostly with the house helps, such
cases abound in Nigeria. Married working women espe-
cially in “Igbo land” Nigeria are expected to leave up to
the core traditional sex-roles like caring for the children
and cooking for the family. At some time because the
woman is not self-employed, she may not measure up
with the above expectation thus making her prone to other
forms of problems particularly from in-laws (mother in-
law) who always complain that the woman is lacking as a
wife, this alone may result to other serious issues (marital
stress). The married working woman may miss here pro-
motion or serious managerial position in some establish-
ment just because she is married and could not meet up
with some promotional requirements at the moment. The
researcher who is also a Nigerian married working woman
has experienced this personally.
This married working woman may have issues with the
choice of parenting styles (authoritarian, authoritative or
permissive) to adopt in her home since she is not solely in
charge of her children upbringing. This may further leave
her with the trauma of the children’s abuse, coming from
the unsupportive spouse, house help(s), neighbours and
relatives, such memories if not addressed properly may
further endanger the family happiness. The researcher
encountered one married female banker who resigned
and is still nursing her regrets for leaving the children in
the hands of house helps while at work plus other simi-
lar cases. The woman who usually serve as the primary
caregiver to her child may in this instance, be a secondary
caregiver and this may affect the attachment/bonding
met for mother and child which may further endanger the
child/mother overall relationship when the child becomes
an adult. The above factor may contribute to the level of
neglect witnessed between some children and their aged
parents (mother) in Nigeria. The married working woman
may face a lot of issues ranging from inadequate nance
to both physical and mental health problems. At this junc-
ture, the disastrous nature of marriage related problems
appears to rely on some variables like making headway
skills, self-concept and educational qualication of mar-
ried women especially those that are working.
1.1 Coping Strategies
Making headway (coping) entails available assets together
with coping mechanisms which is handy for the termina-
tion, adjustment and or handling of taxing moments on
the other hand critical period [5]. How married working
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women respond to the stresses of going to work and cater-
ing for their families rely on many issues mediating on the
resources they have (husbands’ support, house helps, wel-
fare package in their work places, etc.). Other things that
may attenuate marriage related stressors are help received
from members of one’s family (both immediate and ex-
tended), availability of nance and sound knowledge to-
wards new skills in dealing with marriage related issues.
1.2 Types of Coping
This research addressed two forms of coping skills: prob-
lem-focused (making headway on altering the sources of
stress), and emotion-focused (aimed at managing negative
emotional disturbances orchestrated by stress) as sum-
marized by [6]. Married working women who used prob-
lem-focused coping styles may identify what the issue
entails and learning new ways of dealing with it. Whereas,
those that engage in emotion-focused coping styles hav-
ing identied the issue ee from identifying new ways of
solving it, but rather use things like distraction, escape or
dissociation to easy off temporarily instead of addressing
the problem.
1.3 Self-concept
Another factor that may influence marital stress in this
study is self-concept. [7] dened self-concept as reecting
the collection of social roles played by the individual.
There is a negative correlation between self-concept
and marital stress as opined by [8]. It then suggests that
as a women’s self-concept increases, her marital stress
decreases, and vice versa. It is ideal to say that married
working women need to develop high self-concept in or-
der to keep marital stress at it minimal. In this research,
two kinds of self-concept are of interest. These are high
self-concept and low self-concept. Therefore, self-concept
is your own mental picture of yourself. [9] sees it as how
we think of ourselves and how we should think, behave
and act out our various life roles.
1.4 Educational Qualication
Educational qualication was also studied as a factor that
might inuence marital stress, which refers to the formal
education one has acquired, or the literacy attainment of
the participants. In the researcher’s country these edu-
cational qualifications may include: any certificate that
marks the completion of primary and secondary education
as low educational qualication, and certicates awarded
to the students at the completion of higher education from
Colleges of education, Polytechnics and Universities as
high educational qualication.
1.5 Signicant of the Study
In summary, the study intends to reveal whether cop-
ing-strategies, self-concept and educational qualification
will independently or jointly influence marital stress of
married working women. Specically, the aims were: (1)
To determine if coping strategies will signicantly inu-
ence marital stress among married working women, (2) To
nd out whether self-concept will signicantly inuence
marital stress among married working women, (3) To in-
vestigate if educational level will significantly influence
marital stress among married working women, (4) To nd
out if coping strategies and self-concept will have a joint
impact on marital stress of married working women, (5)
To examine whether coping strategies and educational
qualication will have a joint impact on marital stress of
married working women, (6) To determine if self-concept
and educational qualification will have joint impact on
marital stress of married working women and (7) To see
whether coping strategies, self-concept and educational
qualication will have interaction impact on marital stress
of married working women.
1.6 Statement of the Problem
The involvements of women in both economic and do-
mestic responsibilities seem to have placed a heavy bur-
den on their shoulders hence the phenomena of marital
stress. Thus, the need to ascertain how these modern
women are coping with the challenges. Studies have
shown that coping strategies help to moderate stress and
are also inuenced by self-concept and educational quali-
cation. But majority of the research investigating the in-
uences of those constructs were done outside the Nigeria
culture, the researcher deemed it necessary to study this in
her environment. Hence, the research problems were:
(1) Will coping strategies signicantly inuence marital
stress among married working women?
(2) Will self-concept significantly influence marital
stress among married working women?
(3) Will educational qualification significantly influ-
ence marital stress among married working women?
(4) Will coping strategies and self-concept have a joint
impact on marital stress of married working women?
(5) Will coping strategies and educational qualication
have a joint impact on marital stress of married working
women?
(6) Will self-concept and educational qualication have
joint impact on marital stress of married working women?
(7) Will coping strategies, self-concept and educational
qualication have interaction impact on marital stress of
married working women?
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2. Literature Review
Vulnerability-stress-adaptation model [10], in a frame-
work designed to expand beyond the prevailing view
that adverse marital outcomes were caused primarily by
deficits in problem-solving, hypothesized that marital
distress and dissolution emerge from the combination of:
(a) enduring vulnerabilities (e.g., problematic personality
traits such as neuroticism, turbulent family of origin), (b)
stressful events (e.g., major life events, stressful circum-
stances, normative transitions), and (c) poor adaptive pro-
cesses (e.g., inability to empathize with and support the
partner, defensive, hostile, and disengaged problem-solv-
ing skills). Thus, according to this vulnerability-stress-ad-
aptation model, distress and dissolution are most likely
to the extent that spouses who enter marriage with a high
degree of enduring vulnerabilities marry to form couples
that possess poor adaptive processes; subsequently these
couples encounter high levels of stress.
Marital quality is assumed to fluctuate downward
with acute life events, and these uctuations are expect-
ed to be especially large when chronic stress is high [11].
One’s ability to cope with marital stress may depend on
some family variables, problem-solving skills involving
high educational qualification and having high self-con-
fidence in one’s strength. Therefore, it is believed that
any shortcomings in the above-mentioned circumstances
will definitely land the couples in conflicts and possible
divorce and might affect married working women either
positively or negatively. However, the theory did not take
in considerations the issues of minor life events like time
spent together and lack of frequent communication as
they might bring about stress in marriages. Vulnerabili-
ty-stress-adaptation model of marital stress was chosen in
explaining the study construct because it has links to the
three independents factors in this study (coping strategies,
self-concept and educational level).
Theory of Developmental Life Cycle: Theory of hu-
man development according to [12] posits that human be-
ings pass through stages as they grow and develop. Erick-
son went on to state that each stage has a developmental
task the individual must accomplish and this task requires
the adoption of coping strategies.
Psychosocial stages of human development posit that
adequate resolution of the issues that occur at one stage
in the life cycle leaves a legacy of coping resources that
can help to resolve subsequent crises [12]. According to
him, failure to attain one landing implies failure to attain
the next. It was noted that, the circumstances operating in
one’s life at a particular time determine the coping strate-
gy one adopts to go through [13].
This theory posits that adult personality including
coping skills are affected by various stages of growth and
development one passes through in life, couples’ marital
satisfaction/stress may also be affected by what happens
in their various stages of growth and development.
For instance, married working women at any stage of
psychosocial development will device the coping strat-
egies to adopt in reaction to marital stress. It is more
likely that they make use of problem-focused and emo-
tion-focused coping strategies interchangeably in the
face of marital stress and at varied stages. These coping
behaviours may be inform of seeking social support espe-
cially at their work places or taking action to get rid of the
problem. Thus, working women may borrow money from
their work places or even ask for salary advance in order
to tackle an imminent nancial problem facing the family.
Some others may resort to other coping behaviours such
as disclaiming or escape-avoidance. In the face of serious
financial difficult, they may use pent-up emotions such
as distracting oneself and or managing hostile feelings in
order to eliminate marital stress temporary.
In contrast, the above theory fails to address the fact
that married working women have the tendencies to adapt
to the present situation in their current stage of devel-
opment without regard to what happened in their earlier
stage(s).
Social Comparisons Theory of Self-concept: [14] saw
feedback from others as being important in the develop-
ment of the self-concept. According to him, the self-con-
cept is like a looking-glass, reflecting what we believe
other people think of us. This looking-glass self includes
both evaluative and illustrative dimensions: Evaluative di-
mensions are the judgments that we believe other people
are making about us, and illustrative dimensions are what
we believe they see when they look at us. Thus, it is not
just a question of how people respond to our actions - we
are also forming our opinion of ourselves on the basis of
what we think other people think. (14) believed that feel-
ings such as pride, embarrassment and even anger arise
directly from these ideas we have about how other people
perceive us.
According to [15] social comparison serves an under-
standing function and a self-enhancement function. When
individuals feel inadequate, they are likely to make down-
ward comparisons with those who are less adequate or ac-
complished. If individuals are seeking self-improvement,
they are more likely to make an upward comparison to
people slightly better than them on that particular domain,
hence inspiring them to improve. Individuals desiring a
realistic assessment of themselves make both upward and
downward comparisons in an attempt to form a valid as-
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sessment [16].
Married working woman who applies this theory may
be managing her marital stress/job stress properly due to
the quest for self-improvement in which she makes up-
ward comparison to someone slightly better than her in
family life or in the work place. The awareness of others
in the same category passing through similar stress situa-
tion may propel the woman to develop positive self-con-
cept. Similarly, a woman who feels inadequate is likely
to make downward comparisons with those who are less
adequate or accomplished; as a result, the woman may
develop positive self-concept for the awareness of being
better than some other people. But when the outcome of
both comparisons (upward and downward) is seen as a
deciency it may lead to negative self-concept which may
likely put a limit to someone’s level of adjustment hence
marital stress may be obvious.
This theory argued that people compare themselves
with others and use the information to develop an idea
of what they are like, these comparisons determine one’s
self-concept either high or low, while the weakness is that
other peoples’ judgments or believes are most of the time
not true of our real self. Hence, one should not develop
low self-concept because of mere judgments of others.
This theory also fails to address the fact that our
self-concept is not limited to social comparisons but in-
volves the totality of one’s unique qualities, social roles,
personality, etc.
Interaction (Transactional) Theory of Stress: Trans-
actional theory incorporated the importance of both stress-
ors and stress responses in explaining the linkage between
stress and illness or disease. The transactional theory of
stress suggests that stress responses can serve as new
stressors that elicit more intense stress responses. For ex-
ample, if an individual responds to interpersonal conict
(a stressor) by drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes
(an acute behavioral stress response), these behavioral re-
sponses may become new stressors that warrant additional
stress responses.
Thus, transactional theory of stress incorporates com-
ponents of stress stimuli and responses that operate upon
one another in a cyclic fashion. In addition, interaction
or transactional theories emphasize the relation between
the individual and the environment, something rarely dis-
cussed by purely stimulus or response theorists.
[17] proposed a transactional theory of stress that has
received considerable attention over the years. According
to their perspective, it was not the initial stressor per se
that was critical in linking stress to disease, but the indi-
vidual’s response to the stressor that determined whether a
cyclic stress reaction developed.
Focusing upon the acute cognitive stress response
system, [18] suggested that three types of cognitive apprais-
al occurred in determining the magnitude of the stress
reaction: primary appraisal, secondary appraisal, and
reappraisal. Primary appraisal focused upon the degree
to which a person detected a stressor as being harmful (it
leading to potential injury or illness), threatening (causing
anxiety, fear, or damage to self-esteem), or challenging
(leading to potential gain or growth). [18], noted that indi-
viduals determine whether a stimulus was irrelevant, be-
nign-positive, or stressful; only stimuli appraised as stress-
ful elicited ongoing stress responses. Primary appraisal
was conceptualized as being accompanied by secondary
appraisal, which focused upon a person’s determination
of his or her resources to cope with the stressor perceived
during primary appraisal. The process of reappraisal in-
volved any change in the primary appraisal as a result of
the assessment of coping resources that occurred during
secondary appraisal.
[19] as well viewed stress as a perceptual phenomenon,
rooted in psychological processes. It has feedback com-
ponents, making it a cyclical, rather than a linear process.
He proposed a five-stage model: first, the individual is
presented with a demand, external or internal (such as
physiological or psychological needs). The second stage
involves the person’s perception of these demands, an as-
sessment of his ability to manage the perceived demands
given his perceived capacity to meet them. Stress is not an
objective imbalance between demand and coping ability,
but a subjective one. People make a cognitive appraisal
of a potentially stressful situation. The third stage in-
cludes stress responses: psychological and physiological
changes (sadness, aggressiveness, headache, etc.). In a
fourth stage, cognitive defenses and behavioral responses
are developed (rationalization, repression, nagging, etc.),
and in the nal stage a reappraisal of the situation occurs,
forming a feed-back loop that transforms the process from
a linear into a cyclical one. Therefore, ineffective or inap-
propriate coping strategies may prolong the experience of
stress and thereby promote disease.
[20-22] in his experiments demonstrated that rats that
were provided with both control and predictability over a
stressful stimulus exhibited reliably little stress respons-
es and less tissue damage than chained animals without
control or predictability. According to [23], there are two
distinct stress responses: the defense reaction and the
defeat reaction. In a situation that provoked a threat to an
organism, the ght-ight response was triggered, resulting
in the defense/defeat reactions characterized by eeing or
displaying aggression.
Stress has been viewed in a systems manner, in which
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none of the variables alone is capable of explaining the
emotional response and other associated problems. Stress
is a handy term used to describe the operation of many
processes that occur when demands/task exceed the per-
son’s resources. During this process, the person appraises
the encounter by engaging in coping processes and re-
sponds cognitively and affectively to what is happening.
This theory opined that it is not the initial stressor that
cause problem (marital stress), but how the individual re-
sponds which is capable of causing cyclic stress. Women
are likely to experience marital stress because of their re-
sponse to the initial stressor. For instance, a woman whose
sex role such as caring for her family members cause her
to record shortcomings at her ofce may react by nagging
both at home and ofce which may trigger other stimulus
such as spouse battering or query from work place which
in turn increases marital stress. Thus, whether a woman
will experience marital stress as opined above depends
on coping strategies adopted and on the self-concept. If
a woman adopts the best coping strategies in response to
stress which is dependent on the interaction between the
individual and the environment, marital stress will be at
minimal and vice versa.
The theory equally posits that cognition is an important
tool in the appraisal process. According to [24], cognition
indeed refers to the mental process by which external or
internal input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored,
recovered, and used. Cognition is the activity of knowing:
the acquisition, organization, and use of knowledge [25].
Applying the experience acquired through educational
attainment to marital stress situation may determine the
choice of coping strategies to adopt in the face of marital
stress in a way to reduce its effect. This theory fails to re-
alize that not every woman engages in cognitive appraisal
of stressors. Again, the acquisition, organization and use
of knowledge in Nigerian setting may not necessarily have
to do with passing through formal education as a young
married woman may be tutored on the rudiments of family
life by an elderly woman usually the mother or the mother
in-law. This is a common practice in the region and such
mentoring may aid the married working woman with the
techniques of dealing with marital stress. However, it is
very pertinent to nd out the role educational attainment
of married working women plays in the management of
marital stress.
2.1 Empirical Review
2.1.1 Coping Strategies and Marital Stress
In a study carried out by [26] on the relationship between
coping strategies and distress, stress and marital ad-
justment of multiple-role women. The study examined
time-management and self-care coping techniques that
multiple-role women use and their relation to self-re-
ported levels of distress, stress, and marital adjustment.
The participants (N =69) were married, had at least 1
child under the age of 12, and were employed outside the
home for more than 20 hours per week. It was found that
number, type, and frequency of use of time-management
and self-care coping strategies were signicantly related
to self-reported levels of distress, stress and particular-
ly marital adjustment. Further analysis of high and low
scorers on the marital-adjustment test revealed signicant
difference between the groups on measures of distress
and coping. Participants in the high-marital adjustment
group had signicantly lower levels of distress, employed
a greater number of coping strategies, and reported greater
frequency of use of coping strategies than participants in
the low-marital adjustment group. [27] examined the pre-
dictive inuence of marital stress spillover on job perfor-
mance among married civil servants in Oyo State. Using
344 participants the researchers found that the ve vari-
ables of marital stress when combined strongly predicted
job performance. Taken separately, four variables; time
management, household chore distress, nancial distress
and relational distress contributed signicantly to the pre-
diction. [28] using 82 couple found evidence for stress spill
over throughout four years of marriage. The experience
of stress spillover seemed to have important inuences on
marital quality. Changes in wives’ stress were associated
with changes in perceptions of the relationship. As wives’
external stress increased, they perceived more problems
within the relationship (effective communication, showing
affection). [29] in her study on marital conict, coping strat-
egies, age and psychopathology among battered women in
three eastern Nigerian States. A total of four hundred and
eight-nine participants comprising 234 battered women
and 255 non-battered women took part in the study. The
ndings include: the use of problem-focused styles atten-
uate marital stress, and also battered women that adopt
emotion-focused strategies presented more depressive
symptoms than battered women that adopt problem-fo-
cused strategies in coping with their marital difculties.
In contrast, [30] in a study involving 978 pulled from
the population of both married and non-married students
of Miami University opined that problem-focused style is
used when marital stress is within one’s control and emo-
tion-focused when it is out of one’s control. But one way
or the other both attenuate marital associated issues. Thus,
coping strategies vary over or between situations with
differing stress demands. Also, [31] in their study of the re-
lationship between fear and phobia and methods of coping
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with stressors, found that high levels of fear and phobia
in both normal and clinical populations, are associated
with increased use of avoidance coping (emotion-focused)
strategies to deal with stress and decreased use of threat
devaluation strategies. Similarly, [32] noted that although
emotion-focused coping is good in management of marital
stress but problem-focused is the best because it brings a
lasting outcome.
Many studies reviewed on coping strategies and mar-
ital stress was foreign with few indigenous studies. Most
of the studies used couples and students as their research
participants on the role of social support exchanges in
the prevention of marital distress. From the above back-
ground, there is no difference in the use of problem-fo-
cused or emotion-focused styles between married students
and non-married students. Hence, the need to address
married working women and their coping styles since
none of the above reviewed studies addressed this group
of workers.
2.1.2 Self-Concept and Marital Stress
In a study [33] of self-esteem as the mediator between mar-
ital satisfaction and depression using 100 couple from
various communities (100 husbands and 100 wives) found
that self-esteem signicantly mediated the relationship of
marital satisfaction and depression. If the amount of love
a couple expects from their marital quality doesn’t fulll
their need of love and acceptance; their level of confi-
dence (self-concept) and their self-esteem would automat-
ically decline. Also, [9] using one hundred and fty (150)
men and women to explore the relationship between the
differentiation of self-concept and marital stress at vari-
ous stages of marriage life, found that the level of marital
stress depending on the duration of the marriage was neg-
atively correlated for women and positively correlated for
men. In a study conducted by [34] on the relationship be-
tween marital stress and self-esteem in the local context.
A total of 924 disrupted spouses of Nigeria participated in
the study. Among the ndings include that marital stressed
and separated people are more anxious, helpless and
have lower self-esteem than married people. Studies have
proved that those with high self-esteem focus on growth,
whereas those with low self-esteem avoid mistakes in life.
Marital stress and low self-esteem corelates [35]. Some re-
searchers believe that having a high self-esteem facilitates
goal achievement. [36] study found marital satisfaction to
be positively correlated with self-esteem, so that higher
self-esteem was associated with greater satisfaction.
Contrary [37] carried out a study on a model of subjec-
tive and objective self-disconrmation, self-efcacy, de-
pression and marital happiness. One hundred and fty-ve
couples were interviewed and the result opined that hav-
ing high self-concept depends on how well one’s spouse
thought of her while those with low self-concept prefer
those spouses who thought poorly of them.
The studies reviewed were merely on self-esteem and
marital stress because of limited studies on self-concept
and marital stress and also all the studies except one were
done in the western countries without any indigenous
study on self-concept and marital stress. All the studies
equally assert that low self-esteem leads to marital stress
while high self-esteem increases coping. The above stud-
ies proved that married people have high self-esteem
compared with non-married yet, none of the past studies
reviewed in this study used married working women as re-
search participants. Thus, the researcher explored the inu-
ence of self-concept on marital stress of married working
women especially in Nigeria in order to address this gap.
2.1.3 Educational Qualification and Marital
Stress
[38] examined the relationship between marital adjustment,
stress and depression. The participants consisted of 150
working and non-working married women (working mar-
ried women = 75, non -working married women = 75)
who belong to middle and high socio-economic status.
Using Beck Depression Inventory (96), Stress Scale (91)
and Dyadic Adjustment Scale (00). Findings revealed a
remarkable outcome among marital adjustment, depres-
sion and stress. The result equally proved that working
married women meet more challenges in their marriage
compared to their non-working counterpart. Women who
acquired more education and those who are not working
experience less depression in comparison to less educated
and non-working women. The finding of [39] is that the
educational attainment of partners is vital to their relation-
ship with their spouse, particularly during the initial years
of marriage. Female education enhances their relationship
with their partners unlike male education.
Similarly, the [40] found that married people with lower
education experience marital termination more. [35] in his
study on the relationship between marital stress and edu-
cational level in the local context. A total of 924 disrupted
spouses of Nigeria participated in the study. Among the
ndings include that marital stressed and separated people
are more anxious, helpless and have lower self-esteem
than married people; the results of the study suggests that
the stress of graduate spouses was significantly higher
than that of respondents from secondary level and illiterate
spouses. Also stress of graduate respondents is signicantly
higher than that of secondary level and literate respondents
is also found to be signicantly high than that of illiterate
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respondents. The above findings indicate a remarkable
outcome between stress and educational attainment of the
participants. [41] conducted a research involving the three
main tribes in Nigeria. The participants for the study were
a sample of 865 selected across the three main ethnic tribes
in Nigeria. However, it was reported that level of educa-
tion differs signicantly with adjustment strategies on the
bases of ethnic group. Contrary [42] conducted a research
on level of education and marital distress in Ghanaian mar-
ried couple (a comparative study comparing two levels of
education in status; high and low were used to analyze the
data. A sample of married couple who had been married
two years or more with a minimum of secondary school
education were used. In all, 80 married men and women
with equal sampling number of 40 men (husband aged 28-
64yrs) and 40 women (wives aged between 25-56 years)
who reported martial distress on the measuring instrument
were selected. Findings, partners with low education and
those with high education did not differ in their experience
of marital distress.
Thus, those with high education were not less dis-
tressed than those with low education. Similarly, [43] ob-
served a little positive relationship between years spent
in studying and marital satisfaction whereas in women
there is no idea of a relationship. [44] discovered that males
and females with high education have high percentage of
separation/divorce. For the women, those that are highly
educated are anticipated to have good career and also less
economically dependent on their spouses. [45] research on
how husbands and wives who live separately for reasons
relating to work location and others, opined that years of
study has no relationship with married people adjustment
while staying apart with their partners. However, some
inconsistencies were observed whereby some studies have
shown contradicting differences in the relation of educa-
tional level and marital stress. Most of the studies were
foreign with only three done in the Nigeria, two found
positive relationship while one study recorded no signif-
icant difference on marital stress and educational level.
Thus, only one study conducted research using married
working women while others were conducted on couples.
2.2 Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were tested:
(1) Married working women who used emotion-fo-
cused coping will experience less marital stress.
(2) Married working women who had high self-concept
will experience less marital stress.
(3) Married working women who had higher educa-
tional qualication will experience less marital stress.
(4) Coping strategies and self-concept will jointly have
an impact on marital stress.
(5) Coping strategies and educational qualication will
jointly have an impact on marital stress.
(6) Self-concept and educational qualification will
jointly have an impact on marital stress.
(7) Coping strategies, self-concept and educational
qualification will have interaction influence on marital
stress.
3. Method
3.1 Participants
The participants comprising 377 married working women
sampled from non-tutorial staff of two Nigerian Universi-
ties partake in the research. Employing criterion sampling
technique, one hundred and fifty-nine staff were chosen
from University of Nigeria Enugu Campus while the re-
maining two hundred and eighteen staff were sampled
from Enugu State University of Science and Technology
(ESUT) Agbani. Out of this number, 206 participants pos-
sessed lower educational qualications, while the remain-
ing 171 possessed higher educational certicates. Number
of children as provided by the participants were as follow:
25 women had 1 child each; 64 women had 2 children; 76
had 3 children; 110 had 4 four children; 46 had 5 children;
40 had 6 children; 10 had 7 children while the remain-
ing 6 had 8 children each. It was also observed that 108
women were in their early marriage (1 year to 9 years)
and the other 269 women were in their late marriage (10
years and above). Eighteen out of the participants reside
in the school compound while 359 women were staying
off campus. Some benchmark observed in sampling the
staff are hereby listed: living together with husband at the
time of the research; not less than a year in marriage in
addition to completion of secondary school. This was to
ensure that the participants were those exposed to marital
and parenting pressures and also to enable them to read,
understand and ll the questionnaires properly. The ages
of the participants were 25 - 55 years (mean 40.63 and
standard deviation 7.59).
3.2 Instrument
Three instruments were adopted in the research: [46] 32-
item Coping styles, [47] 50-item Marital Stress Inventory
(MSI) and [48] Semantic Differential Self-concept Scale.
3.2.1 Marital Stress Inventory [47]
[47] MSI contains 50 items that hold factors likely to arouse
marriage related problems between husband and wife.
These worries may include: insufcient fund, lack of com-
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munication, etc. All the items were measured on a 5-point
Likert scale: minor outcome (1) to serious outcome (5).
Scoring: It has a direct scoring format; hence the scores
of staff are obtained when the values of the items are
added together. Normative sample: M(n=275) = 77.83;
F(n=282) = 74.49; M&F(n=557) = 76.20. The scale is
both valid and reliable as provided by the original au-
thor, meanwhile a pre-test done by the researcher further
proved that the test is reliable and valid. Hence, the Alpha
coefficient of 0.72 (0.84) and validity index of 0.78 ac-
quired through (MSI) [46] with Marital Conict Behaviour
Checklist (MCBC) [49] designed to assess the presence of
conict based on its frequency in marital relationships.
3.2.2 The Health and Daily Living Form [8]
The scale was used in this study to group the participants
into the two categories of coping styles stated earlier. It
is a 32-item scale with 4-point Likert response which
include: 1 (seldom) to 4 (all the time). Scoring: The
20-items that measure problem-focused were scored
directly while the remaining 12 items measuring emo-
tion-focused were scored in reverse order. Scores above
68 indicate problem-focused style whereas scores below
68 indicate emotion-focused styles. Revalidation of the
scale by the researcher yielded a reliability coefcient of
0.80 and validity index of 0.89 which compares favour-
ably with the original indices of the instrument as being
reliable and valid for the study.
3.2.3 The Semantic Differential Self-Concept
Scale [48]
It is a 54-item Semantic Differential Self-Concept Scale [48],
used to determine the self-concept of the participants. It is a
measure on a 7-point Likert scale from bad (1) to good (7).
The response format of the scales ranged from 1 (bad) to 7
(good). Semantic Differential Self Concept Scale by [48] was
used to measure the self-concept of married working
women. This is to predict those that have low or high
self-concept.
Psychometric Properties [48]
3.2.4 Reliability
[48] Reported an alpha coefcient of r=.70, p<.001. It was
determined by the correlation of the test-retest scores.
3.2.5 Validity
According to [48] Standard Deviation scores from 78 par-
ticipants were subjected to internal factor analysis [50], to
determine the relative contribution of each item to the test
correctness. Result obtained in the factor study showed
that the commonalities (H squared) for the 54 items
ranged from 59-85. A total of 16 factors emerged but one
general factor; the self-concept factor included all the
items, each with a positive factor loading, ranging from
.20 to .64. The researcher found coefcient of 0.95/0.97
correctness index of 0.98. According to [51]. Thus, r of 0.97
= validity index of 0.98.
3.2.6 Procedure
Author of this work through a letter of introduction that
was obtained from the Head Department of Psychology
ESUT received authorization from the Vice Chancellor of
ESUT and Deputy Vice Chancellor of UNEC to embark
on the study with their staff. The writer of this work was
assisted by many research assistants who were trained
on tests administration and collation. Four hundred and
ninety (490) tests measuring demographic variables and
the study constructs were distributed to the staff who
gave their consent to the study in their various offices.
Four hundred and seventy-one (96.12%) were collected,
ninety-four (94) questionnaires were rejected for lack of
merit, hence, three hundred and seventy-seven (377) tests
correctly responded to by the staff were analyzed.
3.2.7 Design and Statistics
Cross-sectional survey analysis was adopted as the re-
search design. Based on the three independent variables
in this study (coping styles, self-concept and educational
qualication) and one dependent variable (marital stress)
a three-way ANOVA was used to ascertain if there is inde-
pendent and joint impact of the independent variables on
the dependent variable. The study adopted 3-way analysis
of variance Fisher’s test with unequal sample sizes based
on three independent variables; 2 (coping strategies: prob-
lem-focused strategies vs. emotion- focused strategies) x
2 (self-concept: low self-concept vs. high self-concept) x
2(educational level: lower educational level vs. higher ed-
ucational level) and a dependent variable (marital stress).
4. Results
The above table showed that staff who used emotion-fo-
cused styles had less means (134.70) compared with those
who used problem-focused styles (153.01). It means that
those who applied emotion-focused styles had less man-
ifestation of marriage related symptoms. The table also
shows that working women who had high self-concept
(151.47) had higher mean score than those who had low
self-concept (135.24) on marital stress. This implies that
married working women who had high self-concept did
not differ in their presentation of marital stress symptoms
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Table 1. Summary of descriptive analysis on Marital Stress and Nigerian Married Working Women: The Role of Coping
Strategies, Self-concept and Educational Qualication
Coping Strategies Self-concept Educational Qualication Mean Std. Deviation N
Problem-focused Coping
Low Self-concept
Lower educational qualication 163.63 69.24 35
Higher educational qualication 153.56 71.18 29
Total 159.06 69.75 64
High Self-concept
Lower educational qualication 164.56 71.18 63
Higher educational qualication 130.27 71.69 49
Total 149.55 73.40 112
Total
Lower educational qualication 164.22 70.49 98
Higher educational qualication 138.92 71.93 78
Total 153.01 72.04 176
Emotion-Focused Coping
Low Self-concept
Lower educational qualication 121.84 71.43 62
Higher educational qualication 124.55 65.44 65
Total 123.23 68.17 127
High Self-concept
Lower educational qualication 168.35 79.56 46
Higher educational qualication 131.43 79.79 28
Total 154.38 81.12 74
Total
Lower educational qualication 141.65 78.13 108
Higher educational qualication 126.62 69.69 93
Total 134.70 74.54 201
Total
Low Self-concept
Lower educational qualication 136.92 73.13 97
Higher educational qualication 133.50 68.22 94
Total 135.24 70.59 191
High Self-concept
Lower educational qualication 166.16 74.80 109
Higher educational qualication 130.69 74.22 77
Total 151.47 76.39 186
Total
Lower educational qualication 152.39 75.27 206
Higher educational qualication 132.23 70.78 171
Total 143.25 73.86 377
Table 2. Summary Table of Marital Stress and Nigerian Married Working Women: The Role of Coping Strategies, Self-
concept and Educational Qualication
Source Type III Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig.
Corrected Model 138503.87a7 19786.27 3.82 .001
Intercept 7123423.76 1 7123423.76 1374.37 .000
Coping Strategies 23015.52 1 23015.52 4.44 .036
Self-concept 5111.53 1 5111.53 .986 .321
Educational Qualication 32784.69 1 32784.69 6.33 .012
Coping Strategies * Self-concept 30467.18 1 30467.18 5.88 .016
Coping Strategies * Educational Qualication 548.51 1 548.51 .106 .745
Self-concept * Educational Qualication 21648.90 1 21648.90 4.177 .042
Coping Strategies * Self-Concept * Educational Qualication 1262.90 1 1262.90 .244 .622
Error 1912546.19 369 5183.05
Total 9786944.000 377
Corrected Total 2051050.06 376
Note:
a. R Squared = .068 (Adjusted R Squared =. 050)
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from those who had low self-concept. In the same vein,
married working women who had lower educational qual-
ication (152.39) had higher mean score than those who
had higher educational qualication (132.23).
This indicates also that married working women with
lower educational qualification presented more marital
stress symptoms than women with higher educational
qualification. The dependent measures were the partici-
pant’s scores on marital stress inventory.
Table 2 above proved that a remarkable difference ex-
ists between staff who used emotion-focused styles and
those who used problem-focused styles F (1, 369) = 4.44,
sig. = .036. Thus, it confirmed the first hypothesis that
married working women coping strategies will have an
impact on their marital stress. The table also shows that
self-concept was not signicant, F (1, 369) = 0.99, sig. =
.321. This also disconfirmed the second hypothesis that
married working women self-concept will have an impact
on their marital stress.
Further, the Table shows that the factor of educational
qualification yielded a remarkable outcome F (1,369) =
6.33, sig. = .012, hence the hypothesis that married work-
ing women educational qualication will have an impact
on their marital stress, was accepted. The result indicates
that there exist educational qualification differences in
marital stress.
The table equally shows signicant interaction inuence
of coping strategies and self-concept, F (1, 369) = 5.88,
sig. = .016. This is graphically represented in Figure 1.
Finally, the Table shows significant interaction influ-
ence of self-concept and educational qualification, F (1,
369) = 4.18, sig. = .042. This is also graphically represent-
ed in Figure 2.
Figure 1. Graph showing the interaction of coping
strategies and self-concept on marital stress of married
working women
Figure 2. Graph showing the interaction of self-concept
and educational qualication on marital stress among
married working women
5. Discussion
Result of this study indicated a statistically significant
influence of coping strategies on marital stress. This
means that there was a remarkable difference between
the marriage related problems of those who used emo-
tion-focused styles and those who used problem-focused
styles. Thus, observation of the mean scores in Table 1
shows that women who adopted emotion-focused styles
manifested less marital stress symptoms than those who
used problem-focused styles. Hence, hypothesis 1 was
conrmed. The result is in line with the work done by the
following authors [26-29] who opined that problem-focused
styles is used when marital stress is within one’s control
and emotion-focused when it is out of one’s control. But
one way or the other both attenuate marital associated
issues. In contradiction, the result of the study is not in
agreement with the following works [29,32] who opined that
emotion-focused styles attenuate marital stress temporar-
ily whereas problem-focused styles give a long-lasting
relief. The nding of this work seems to depend the popu-
lation studied, in “Igbo land” Nigeria most women engage
in various church/social activities coupled with the fact
that the staff deal with students and co-staff almost all the
time, which suggest that they have enough distractions
capable of attenuating marital stress. Often, they share
their marital challenges and understand that nobody is free
from marriage related stress hence, the use of denial or
distortion of the reality as an immediate relief from stress.
Emotion-focused styles should be adopted in the face of
adversity, hence [16] opined that how to make head way
during stressful period depends on inherited factors and its
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interaction with ones’ environment.
Second hypothesis which stated that married working
women with high self-concept would differ in manifes-
tation of marital stress symptoms from those with low
self-concept was confirmed. The result showed non re-
markable outcome on the participants’ marital stress. The
nding is in contrast to the study carried out by [38] who
opined that having high self-concept depends on how well
one’s spouse thought of her while those with low self-con-
cept prefer those spouses who thought poorly of them.
Nigeria women especially the “Igbos” do not really have
a self-concept that is not linked to the family or the mar-
riage, so the self-concept of women does not really matter.
This may be the reason why the participants’ self-concept
has nothing to do with their marital stress.
The third hypothesis which stated that married working
women who had higher educational qualication will ex-
perience less marital stress was accepted. The nding is in
contrast with previous research on educational level and
marital challenges [35,42,45] they opined that women with
lower level of education experienced less marital stress
compared to those with higher educational qualication.
The studies conducted [44,43] reported no correlation be-
tween educational level and marital stress. However, in
support of the above ndings [40,41] and [39] reported thus,
staff who experience marital stress are participants with
lower educational qualications. The studies also discov-
ered that women with higher educational qualications re-
late well with their husbands. This is on the basis that that
people gain knowledge through education, knowledge on
how to handle issues in the family and how to relate with
spouse. Women who scored high on the factor of educa-
tional level showed less marital stress symptoms, while
those who have acquired low education showed high
marital stress symptoms. In other words, in the course
of acquiring high education one might also learn how to
address some important life issues like insufcient funds,
persistent nagging and ght, etc. The author opined that
higher educational qualifications should be encouraged
among married female workers to forestall or reduce mar-
ital stress.
The significant interaction influence of coping strate-
gies and self-concept seems to suggest that the intensity of
marital stress depended on type of coping strategies and
self-concept in place. Thus, the result shows that coping
strategies and self-concept jointly contribute to the mani-
festations of marriage related issues by staff who took part
in this study. This nding suggests that coping strategies
and self-concept influence the manifestations of marital
difculty. The interaction of problem-focused styles and
high self-concept is key reducing one’s marital challenges.
To be stable in the face of marital stress, one should
adopt problem-focused coping and have high self-con-
cept. The result also suggests that to deal with marital
stress working women should adopt emotion-focused
coping and show low self-concept, since those who adopt
emotion-focused coping and high self-concept suffer more
marital stress.
Finally, the signicant interaction inuence of self-con-
cept and educational qualification seems to suggest that
the intensity of marital stress depends on one’s self -con-
cept in conjunction with educational qualication. Hence,
the result shows that self-concept and educational quali-
cation jointly contribute to the manifestation of marriage
related problems of the participants. The interaction of
factors of self- concept and educational qualification in
marital stress showed that to remain stable, one needs to
develop high self-concept and acquire high education and
or low self-concept and high education.
5.1 Implications of the Findings
The ndings from this study have opened a new area for
health management in Nigeria. It is the intention of the
Nigerian government to ensure that good health is pro-
vided to the general populace thus the popular saying that
a healthy nation is a wealthy nation and also that good
health is good wealth. The Nigerian government in their
various policies has tried in the provision of basic health
care aids such as drugs, the training and re-training of
health personnel, etc, yet more are needed in the area of
mental health care especially among married working
women.
The outcome of the study has added to the existing
knowledge in this area, so people should adopt coping
styles in managing their marital issues especially the use
of emotion-focused style. Finally, twenty-first century
women unlike their predecessors have a lot to tackle like
being efcient in their work places and at the same time
performing their sex roles. Thus, there is every need for
them to equip themselves with higher education plus the
use of emotion-focused styles in handling marital issues.
5.2 Limitations of the Study
Main demerit to this research was the women inclination
towards self-report tests as delving into their private lives.
Some staff were not keen to answering the research in-
struments owing to their extensive nature. The author did
not gather other important variables of the staff such as
the participants spouses’ career, educational level, social
standing and other forms of house help accessible for the
women. Lack of adequate finance limited the study to
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only two Universities which may affect the generalization
of the ndings of this research.
5.3 Suggestions for Further Studies
Further studies are vital because the present research
captured only the women who are relatively literate and
seemingly economically stable. Many variables which
may help women in managing their marital issues should
be studied such as participants spouses’ work career,
their educational attainment, the effect of child bearing
and rearing in the management of marital discords, etc.
Married working women in other cultures and other uni-
versities should be studied to aid external validity of this
ndings. Further research should do a comparative study
between educated and non-educated women, employed
and unemployed women in the bid to aid the generation of
the ndings.
5.4 Summary and Conclusion
The study investigated marital stress and Nigerian married
working women: the role of coping strategies, self-con-
cept and educational qualication. The result of the study
indicates signicant inuence of coping strategies on mar-
ital stress, women who adopted emotion-focused coping
showed less manifestations of marital stress than those
who adopted problem-focused coping. Married female
staff who have higher educational attainment were more
stable in the face of marital discord compared with those
who have lower educational attainment. It was equally
found that problem-focused coping interacted with high
self-concept in alleviating marital stress. High self-con-
cept and higher educational qualication jointly attenuate
marital stress among married working women. Basically,
it is recommended that using an emotion-focused style
will ensure that married working women remain stable
during the experience of marital stress. Education on the
other hand plays a vital role in attenuating marital stress,
thus it is highly recommended that the government pay
attention to ensuring that women in Nigeria have access to
quality education in the bid to support their future career,
prior to marriage and even during marriage, etc. The im-
portance of how society portrays women in general affect
their self-concept, thus it is the responsibility of the whole
community in Nigeria to highlight equality among gender
especially in “Igbo land”. This is paramount especially as
self-concept has no impact on marital stress of married
working women which may depend on the assumption
that in Nigeria, women do not really have a self-concept
that is not linked to the family or the marriage, so the
self-concept of women does not really matter. The spous-
es of the married working women have a role to play in
order to enhance their self-concept since high self-concept
has a link with problem-focused coping and also higher
education to lessen marital stress of their spouses.
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