Trickery in Marital Relationship-What Choice would you Make When Your Spouse is Discovered: Psychotherapy or Legal option?

Abstract

The primary focus of this study was to investigate the likely decisions that spouses would consider when they discover that their partners are cheating in the relationship. The two options that were hypothesized are psychotherapy and, or legal means. Utilizing the simple random technique, 714 married participants, selected from three States in Nigeria with age range of 28 and 54 years and Mean age of 39.61 years (SD=7.18) constituted the sample for the study. Both the descriptive and inferential statistics at the 0.05 alpha levels were used for quantification. The findings, among others indicated that spouses' inability to appreciate each other and frequent nagging (80.4%) was the highest index for spousal trickery. While spousal cheating was more prevalent among the married who are childless and are under family pressure (79.5%),the findings further showed that spousal decision to pursue either psychotherapy and, or legal option was significantly different{F(2,713)=8.65;P<0.05].For family coherence and implication for overall wellbeing, the study recommends that adequate strategies for family relaxation should become the regular feature as spouses are encouraged to harness the benefits of marriage enrichment programmes provided through psychotherapy.

African Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology and Sport Facilitation Vol. 10 2008: pp. 136-153