Abstract

The study aimed at determining whether premarital counselling actually influenced marital satisfaction.  A self-developed structured questionnaire (α = 0.89) was utilized on a sample of 322 premarital counselled and non- premarital counselled spouses in Ghana.  Linear multiple regression, independent sample t-test and Pearson product moment correlation were used to analyze the data. The nature of premarital counselling significantly influenced spouses’ experience of marital satisfaction (β = .401, t = 5.241, p = .000), together with topics adequately discussed during premarital counselling (β = -.181, t= -2.370, p= .019).  Additionally, premarital counselled spouses were more likely to experience marital satisfaction than non- premarital counselled spouses (M =3.39, SD = .359, t (193) = 2.571, p = .011; M = 3.26, SD = .489). Premarital counselling moderately correlated with and marital satisfaction (r = -.153, n = 322, p < 0.01).

Keywords: Marital satisfaction, marital dissatisfaction, premarital counseling, family satisfaction