Marital conflict among couples: The case of Durbete town, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study explored the prevalence, causes, consequences and coping strategies of marital conflict in Durbete town. The study employed a mixed approach with cross-sectional descriptive survey research design. A total of 390 people participated: 386 (193 men and 193 women) couples as survey respondents and four interviewees. Survey respondents were selected through stratified and proportional random sampling technique. Four interviewees were purposely selected from elders, lawyers, and women and children’s affairs office. Data were collected using, questionnaire, interview, and, document. One sample t-test, weighted mean and rank order were used as quantitative data analysis techniques. Qualitative data were analyzed, thematically using quotation, paraphrasing and narration. The findings revealed that marital conflict is highly prevalent and showed an increasing trend from year to year. The major causes of marital conflict were of psychological, gender related, sexual, socio cultural, economic. The five major consequences of marital conflict identified were stress, feeling of depression and grief, worry about what others say beyond the disturbance with their own spouses, and feeling of despair and hopelessness. The frequently applied conflict coping strategies were competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, accommodation, and third party interference. Finally, it is concluded that marital conflict is one major social issue in the study area that needed involvement of experts in social work, counseling and law to minimize the prevalence of marital conflicts.

Keywords:

• Marital Conflict
• Prevalence
• Causes
• Consequences
• Coping Strategies

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

This study revealed that the prevalence of marital conflict in Durbete town is escalating from time to time. Marital conflicts are mainly resulted from psychological, gender related, sexual, socio-cultural, and economic factors. Marital conflict leads to tremendous negative consequences such as feelings of stress, depression, grief, worry about what others say beyond the disturbance with their own spouses, and feeling of despair and hopelessness. The conflicts not only affect the conflicting couples but also their children. On the other hand, though the conflicting couples applied different strategies such as competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, accommodation, and third party interference to cope with conflict, they are not effective to make sustainable peace for their families. Hence, marital conflict remains one major social issue in the study area that needs the involvement of experts in social work, counseling, and law to minimize the prevalence of marital conflicts.

1. Introduction

Life is a path usually travelled with a partner. It is full of communication, expectation, adjustment and identification. Every person identifies his/her in a role and according to this journey of life begins. Marriage is one milestone of life, where one selects a partner, with a new role and new expectation. Marriage is the coming together of two totally different individuals as husband and wife who agree to plan and set up their own family. Osarenren (2002) viewed marriage as usually a union between an adult male and an adult female. Different interpretations are given on the importance of marriage by different persons, religions, philosophers. For instance, Glenn and Weaver (1979) claimed that “Marriage is found to be one of the strongest correlates of happiness and well-being”. Besides, Argyle and Furnham (1983) explained that “Marriage is the greatest source of social support for most people more than friends or including emotional and marital support and companionship”.

Marriage, as a basic institution in every society, may be described as one of the important and fundamental human relationships; it is a culturally, religiously and socially recognized union, normally between a man and a woman, who are referred to as husband and wife. This union establishes rights and obligations between spouses, their children and even between them and their in-laws (Olugbenga, 2018, p. 306). According to C.A. Tolorunleke (2008) marriage should be an exciting and beautiful adventure and the relationship between husband and wife is intended to get better with every passing day or year. However, little things can slip into the relationship and Okafor, 2002 (as cited in Tolorunleke, 2014, p. 22) puts it, when these little things are not properly handled, they can cause friction and eventual separation between the partners that may widen over the years.

Conflict in marriage is inevitable. Whenever two people get together eventually some of the belief system and personal habits of one will annoy the other, regardless of the degree of love. In healthy relationships couples tend to accept and resolve conflict. But in case of unhealthy relationships marital conflicts arise due to several reasons. When there is conflict between role performance and role expectation of the spouses, it leads to maladjustment of husband—wife relationships and to marital disruptions (Pathan, 2015). Marital conflict can be defined as the state of tension or stress between marital partners as the couple try to carry out their marital roles.

Marital conflict may be described as a struggle, clash, strife, disagreement or quarrel between husband and wife, and sometimes with other members of the household, over opposing needs, ideas, beliefs, values or goals Cummings (as cited in Olugbenga, 2018, p. 307).

Marital conflict is high in almost all countries of Africa including Ethiopia (Bongaarts et al “. 1984(as cited in Afework, 2010, p. 2). Studies of six African countries showed that, on the average a high proportion of first marriages are within marital conflict. Added that, research findings in Rural Malawi revealed that life table proportions of marital conflict ranges from 40 to 65 percent and are among the highest on the continent (Reniers, 2003). SimilarlySomit prueksaritanod (2015), indicate that 9 out of 10 couples (89.3%) experienced conflict which was higher than the prevalence of couple conflict in the previous study from Spain (80%).Furthermore, in his study, the spousal conflict occurred every month (up to 1–2 events per month), and every week, was found at approximately six out of ten couples (59.1%).

The problem of marital conflict in Ethiopia follows similar trend as other locations. At least one-third of first marriages end up in divorce or separation because of marital conflict and most of these take place in the first two years of marriage Central Statistics Authority, 1991, 1993 (as cited Afework, 2010, p. 2). Similarly, in the 1994 population and housing census in Addis Ababa it was indicated that, among 506, 852 married couples 97,147 were divorced because of marital conflict. Moreover, according to Tilsen and Larson, 2000, (as cited in Yeshework et al., 2019, p. 74) stated that 45 percent of first marriages in Ethiopia end in divorce within 30 years because of marital conflict. Similarly, Pathfinder International Ethiopia (2006), indicated that a high rate of marital instability is observed in the Amhara region. Results of the Pathfinder quantitative survey in the region revealed that about 27 percent of marriages in urban areas and 19 percent in rural areas had ended in divorce or separation because of marital conflict.

Marital conflict comes in different forms like spouse battering, spousal abuse, sexual abuse, marital irresponsibility, incest, rape, subtle struggle for control between the couple and other abusive behaviours and also caused by childlessness, forced marriage, incompatibility, communication gap, interference by in-laws, finances, infidelity, sex of children, lack of appreciation etc (Osarenren, 2013). Furthermore, researchers in Ethiopian like Tiruwork (2015), and Meaza and Wobedel (2014) identified several major sources of marital conflict, i.e., violent behaviors of husbands, lack of cooperation in the family, inability to spend enough time together, issues related to children and other families, lack of effective communication, and financial problems. Also, a quantitative study of couples highlighted personal traits, communication skills, commitment, and family background as the most significant factors related to conflicts in marriages.

Regarding its consequences, marital conflict is not only the issue of the two spouses; its effect goes beyond the individuals who dissolve the marital union. Children and other relatives of the couples are the immediate victims who share the potential consequences and exposed to various psychosocial problems (Collins, 1988). Moreover, conflicts in marriages produce various personal, familial, physical, and psychological consequences. They can result in depression, anxiety, and eating disorders and others.

Additionally, conflict in marriage can lead to poorer health conditions and the risk of certain diseases, such as heart disease, as well as cancer and chronic pains. Furthermore, conflicts in marriages can affect family life in different ways, e.g., it may decrease the performance of the parents and the compatibility of the children and increase conflicts among all family members (parents and children as well as between siblings).

Coping strategy has long been conceptualized as involving both constructive and destructive processes, and research in the area of marital conflict has focused on these two global aspects of conflict management (Fincham & Beach, 1999). De Bruyne and Greeff (2000) identified five models of conflict resolution styles. These are competitive, collaborative, compromise, avoidance, and accommodative style. The focus of this research is on the prevalence, causes, consequences, and coping strategies of marital conflict among couples in Durbete town.

In traditional agricultural societies like us where marriage is early and universal, where there is high level of fertility and mortality, low education, less availability of social services, low economic development and poverty. The focus of this research is on the prevalence, causes, consequences and coping strategies of marital conflict among couples in Durbete town.

Marriage is a vital or an energetic aspect of life time as well as a relationship which is planned to last for a lifetime. As a very important human institution, marriage not only provides the initial structure to establish family relations, but also serves as a path to raise and train future generations (Bano, Ahmad, Khan, Iqbal & Aleem, 2013 (as cited in Olugbenga, 2018). However, research has shown that in recent times, people are turning away from marriages because it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a happy and stable union (Amato, Johnson, Booth and Rogers, 2003). This is so because as Omeje (2014) opined, quite a number of marriages today are into serious conflict and this has modeled a severe threat to the hypothetically marital satisfaction and happiness that would have been enjoyed by couples. Moreover, marital conflicts have been seen as the major causes of marital instability which often leads to divorce, desertion, single-parenthood and generally failed marriages (Olson & Olson, 2000).

In Ethiopia, there were some related researches that were conducted in the area of marital conflict. For instance, Demeke (2019) worked on determinants of marital conflict among governmental employed workers, Admasu (2013) on the major changes and challenges in marriage, Meaza (2014) on the source of marital conflict, the relationship between conflict resolution mechanisms and marital satisfaction among married couples, Tiruwork (2015) on the prevalence, causes, consequences, and coping strategies of marital conflict between couples, Yeshework et al. (2019) on prevalence, causes and consequences of divorce. However, none of them could address the prevalence, causes, consequences and coping strategies of marital conflict via mixed approach in the study area. Consequently, this study attempted to answer the following basic questions.

1. To what extent is marital conflict prevalent among married couples in Durbete town?

2. What are the major causes of marital conflict among married couples?

3. What are the major consequences of marital conflict among married couples?

4. What are the coping strategies of marital conflict frequently applied by married couples?

2. Research design and methodology

2.1. Approach and design

This study applied a mixed approach with cross- sectional and descriptive survey research designs. Cross-sectional survey design is used for population-based surveys and to assess the prevalence of diseases or social issues like marital conflict. These types of design give us information about the prevalence of outcomes or exposures; this information will be useful for designing the cohort study and this design of research are carried out at one time point or a short period of time, it conducted to collect insights from a target audience at a particular time interval (Levin, 2006).

In order to identify the prevalence, major causes, consequences, and coping strategies of marital conflict between married couples in the study area, the researchers used descriptive survey research design. Descriptive survey design can involve collection of quantitative information that can be tabulated along a continuum in numerical form, such as scores on a test or the number of times a person chooses to use a certain feature of a multimedia program, or it can describe categories of information such as gender or patterns of interaction. It involves gathering data that describe events and then organizes, tabulates, depicts, and describes the data collection (Glass & Hopkins, 1995). Descriptive survey design is used to report summary data such as measures of central tendency including the mean, median, mode, variation, percentage, and correlation between variables. Survey research commonly includes that type of measurement, but often goes beyond the descriptive statistics in order to draw inferences (Robinson’s, 1994).

Moreover, to achieve each specific objective of this study in a proper way, the researchers applied a mixed approach. According to Creswell, (2008) mixed method procedures are those in which the researchers converge or merge quantitative and qualitative data in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of the research problem. In this approach, the investigator collected both forms of data at the same time and then integrated the information in the interpretation of the overall results.

2.2. Population, sample size and sampling techniques

There are 16,662 (8,314 males and 8,348 females) in the study area. Among this population; there are 10,436 (6,200 couples in kebele 1 and 4,236 couples in kebele 2) living together as a husband and wife (vital event, 2020). The researchers used stratified sampling technique to take a sample in terms of the couple’s residence/kebele. Then after, proportional sampling technique was used to take the sample from each kebele proportionally. The sample size of survey respondents was determined by using the Yamane (1967) formula. n = where, n is sample size, N is population size, 1 is constant and, e is compromise margin of error; (95% confidence level and e = 0.05 based on the research condition). n =$\frac{10436}{1+10436\left(0.0025\right)}$ = 386. So, the sample size of this study was 386 married couples living together. The researchers took the samples from each Kebele as indicated in the Table 1.

Table 1. Population and sample size of participants

Population Group	Population	Sample	Sampling techniques
Kebele 1	6,200	230	Proportional sampling technique
Kebele 2	4,236	156
Total	10,436	386

On the other hand, for qualitative data, the researchers used purposive sampling technique for the purpose of getting detailed information about the issues from lawyers, women and children affairs officers, and socially recognized elders.

2.3. Instruments of data collection

To achieve the specific objectives of this study the researchers used document analysis, questionnaire (both open and close-ended questionnaires) and semi-structured interview.

2.3.1. Document

In order to see the prevalence of marital conflict in the study area, the researchers tried to assess the cases of marital conflict from the Durbete Courtroom recorded document from 2017 to 2019 consecutive years. And also the researchers tried to see its prevalence by listing the question of how much time approximately raised conflict with your spouse per month in the survey questionnaire. Additionally, the researchers tried to assess the personal opinion of its prevalence during the interview.

Document analysis is a form of qualitative research in which documents are interpreted by the researcher to give voice and meaning around an assessment topic (Bowen, 2009). Analyzing documents incorporates coding content into themes similar to how focus group or interview transcripts are analyzed (Bowen, 2009).

2.3.2. Questionnaire

The main instrument used in this study was questionnaires. A questionnaire is defined as a research instrument that consists of a set of questions or other types of prompts that aims to collect information from a respondent. These typically are a mix of close-ended and open-ended questions; long form questions offer the ability for the respondent to elaborate on their thoughts. It is a set of questions typically used for research purposes which can be both qualitative as well as quantitative in nature. A questionnaire may or may not be delivered in the form of a survey, but a survey always consists of questionnaire Sukamolson (2007).

The general focus of the questionnaire was to list out the causes, consequences and coping strategies of marital conflict among couples in Durbete town. The questionnaire used items for demographic characteristics of the respondents consisted 7 items including gender, age, educational status of respondents, length of marriage, number of children, income provided for the family and number of times approximately couples’ raised conflict with his/her spouse per month. Considering the causes, consequences and coping strategies of marital conflict the researchers developed from the literature and adapted from the previous researches. The questionnaire consisted of rating/Likert scale questionnaire items consisting of strongly disagree, disagree, undecided, agree and strongly agree adapted from Meaza Meaza (2014).

2.3.3. Pilot test

For the pilot test, the researchers used a total of 20 couples (10 males and 10 females) in Kebele 1 and 2 who were not part of the main survey. In this test, Cronbach’s alpha was employed to determine the reliability of the questionnaire items. Internal reliability of the Causes of marital conflict scale was 0.85, the consequences of marital conflict scale were 0.93, and coping mechanisms of marital conflict scale was 0.76. However, four items from the causes of marital conflict, 2 questions from the consequences of marital conflict, and three questions from the coping mechanisms of marital conflict were not found to be reliable and excluded in the final study instrument. The results are indicated in Table 2.

Table 2. Cronbach’Alpha result of pilot study

Items	Results	No. of items
Causes of marital conflict scale	0.85	42
Consequences of marital conflict scale	0.93	13
Coping mechanisms of marital conflict	0.76	32

2.3.4. Interview

Interviews were also carried out in order to cross check and enrich the data gathered through questionnaires. The researchers prepared an interview guideline (semi structured interview) that contains four questions. The first question was asked about the personal views of the prevalence of marital conflict, the second question was asked about the major causes of marital conflict, the third question was asked about the major consequences of marital conflict, the fourth question was asked about the coping strategies that frequently used by married couples during marital conflict.

Interview guidelines were designed for persons who have sufficient knowledge or information about the issue like socially recognized elders, lawyers and a head of child and women affairs office. Interview guidelines (semi-structured interviews) were used when there is some knowledge about the topics or issues under investigation, but further details are still needed. Semi-structured interviews can be based on topics, issues, and questions that emerged from unstructured interviews or other sources of information. Semi-structured interviews allow discretion on the number and order of predefined questions posed to the participant. This type of interview involves the use of both open-ended and closed-ended questions and can provide both quantitative and qualitative data Wilson (2013).

After the quantitative data collected through questionnaire and qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews, the researchers analyzed through quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis. The gathered information of quantitative data through questionnaire, after organizing the data obtained from the participants in a piece of paper the researcher entered and coded that organized data in the computer, then Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 was used.

2.4. Data analysis techniques

Based on the five basic research questions of this study, the researcher employed both descriptive statistics like table, frequency, percentage, one weighted mean, rank order and inferential statistics such as one sample t-test, and independent sample t-test.

The qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews were transcribed and data analysis was carried out using thematic analysis. The information was categorized using different themes as causes, consequences and coping strategies of marital conflict. Finally, based on the analysis, the major causes, consequences and coping strategies of marital conflict were identified and used to answer the basic research questions.

3. Results

3.1. Prevalence of marital conflict

The study revealed that there is high prevalence of marital conflict in Durbete town. The data from respondents and documents from Woreda Court achieve witness the high prevalence and even the increasing trend from the year 2017 to 2019. Data are illustrated in the following figures.

As can be seen from Figure 1, the largest percentage of respondents 165(42.7%) raised conflict approximately 3–5 per month, the remaining 110(28.5%), 82(21.2%), 20(5.2%), and 9(2.3%) of the participants raised conflict approximately at most 2 times, 6–8,9-11, and at least 12 times per month respectively. This indicates that couples frequently engaged in conflict.

Figure 1. Approximate frequency of conflict between couples per month

The trends of marital conflict cases are increasing year to year. For instance, data obtained from the Woreda Court record office, show that the number of marital conflict cases taken to the court was 104, 152, and 205 in 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively. Moreover, a lawyer and the head of women and children’s affairs office responded that the number of couples recorded in marital cases is increasing from time to time and year to year. Similarly, the two elder interviewees responded that the number of couples who engaged in marital conflict is increasing from time to time.

3.2. Causes of marital conflict

To identify the major causes of marital conflict the researchers administered 42 items for the participants and also after collecting the data towards the causes of marital conflict the researchers categorized those 42 items into gender-related, psychological, sexual, sociocultural and economic factors. The results of these factors are summaries through one—sample statistics in Table 3.

Table 3.. One sample t- test for the factors of marital conflict (N =386; test value =3)

Dimensions of marital conflict factors	Mean	Std. Deviation	t	df	Sig. (2-tailed)	Mean Difference	95% Confidence Interval of the Difference
							Lower	Upper
Gender Related	3.6332	1.09693	11.340	385	.000	.63316	.5234	.7429
Psychological Factors	3.8180	1.07935	14.890	385	.000	.81804	.7100	.9261
Sexual related	3.4914	1.12403	8.589	385	.000	.49136	.3789	.6039
Sociocultural	3.3350	1.09831	5.992	385	.000	.33497	.2251	.4449
Economic Factors	3.3860	1.16374	6.517	385	.000	.38601	.2695	.5025

To determine whether the observed magnitudes in each factor of marital conflict were significantly different from the test value (3) or not, a one sample t-test was employed. The result revealed that significant mean differences were observed between the hypothesized population means for each factors of marital conflict and the sample mean of gender-related factors (M =3.6332, SD =1.09693), t(385) = 11.340, p =.000, psychological factors (M =3.8180, SD =1.07935), t(385) =14.890, p =.000, sexual related factors (M =3.4914, SD =1.12403), t(385) = 8.589,p =.000, sociocultural factors (M =3.3350, SD =1.09831), t(385) =5.992, p =.000, economic factors (M =3.3860, SD =1.16374), t(385) = 6.517, p = .000. This indicated that all gender-related, psychological, sexual, socio-cultural and economic factors are perceived as the major causes of marital conflict observed in Durbete town.

In addition to the survey results, the responses of the interviewees about the factors of marital conflict were summarized as follows:

• Economic factors – According to the interviewees, marital conflicts in Durbete town are frequently caused because of money/financial problems. Most of the interviewees indicated that the issue of use of money occurs when the couples are different in their way to spend or save money. Most of the time,, husbands use more money than wives without the consent of the wives.

• Misuses of social media- The participants of the interview indicated that couples specifically early adult couples are the major victims of social media in Durbete town. According to the interviewees, misuse of social media particularly Imo, telegram and Facebook became a major cause of marital conflict in Durbete town as it consumed their time that would have been spent for their spouses. Most of the time couples are engaged in conflict when their own spouses communicate with other opposite sex persons (those persons may affiliate persons, colleagues, and others) through Imo, telegram and face book.

• Gender roles - As to the interviewees, role conflicts were common among new couples of this generation. Misconception on gender roles between couples is the major cause of marital conflict. In the culture of Durbete town, a husband and wife have a unique role position. And as they had informed the researcher role conflicts normally occur when the husband is unemployed and the wife is employed. Most of the time women have very different roles such as cooking, cleaning and farm work for other issues in the house.

• Caring kids and communication barriers - the interviewees forwarded that couples usually raised conflict because of how to discipline their own children, how much to discipline them and how to meet their requests. And also communication problems are crucial in marriage. According to the interviewees, most of the time couples are not communicating effectively and quickly.

• Unrealistic expectation and suspect: according to interviewees, some husbands are suspecting their own wives in sex. Due to this reason some couples are engaged in conflict between themselves.

3.3. Consequences of marital conflict

To identify the major consequences of marital conflict in Durbete town, questionnaires with 13 items were administered for the participants. The responses of the participants were summarized through weighted mean and rank order. Consequently, the five top consequences identified by the respondents were; after conflict with spouse, they suffer from stress (mean =3.88), after conflict with spouse, they feel depressed (Mean =3.83), after they conflicted with spouse they develop feel of grief (Mean =3.74), they worry about what others say about them beyond disturbance with spouses (Mean =3.74), and after conflict with spouse, they feel despair and hopelessness (Mean =3.71).

In addition to the survey result, the two elder interviewees confirmed that, divorce/separation is one of the major consequences of marital conflict observed in Durbete town. Those elders informed that when the spouses can not resolve marital conflicts, they separate, and thus the family is disturbed. Other interviewees of this study talked about the problems for the children resulting from marital conflict. Some of these remarks were made in the context of psychological disturbance. They informed that the consequences of marital conflict may be seen in the behaviours and even the educational problems of children.

Regarding the consequences of marital conflict, the head of the Woreda Women and Children Affairs Office stated that:

Both the husband and wife are often experiencing emotional problems like distrust, insecurity, lack of intimacy, confusion over sexuality or gender, guilt, faithlessness, and loneliness. In addition, when the couples disturb themselves, their children become stressed, irritable, distressed, and the like. Moreover from my experience I understood that, when children grow up in disturbance families, they develop doubt about love and harmony in a relationship and become highly vulnerable to substance abuse”. I also have information that children from conflicting families are absent from school, develop delinquent behavior, loss of control, isolation, low self-esteem, and hopelessness.

In general, the experience of marital conflict leads to different harmful/bad consequences not only for couples but it may be a bad environment within which the children learn.

3.4. Coping strategies of marital conflict

So as to identify the coping strategies frequently used by couples the researcher administered 32 questionnaires for the participants and also after collecting the data toward the coping strategies of marital conflict, the researcher conceptualized those 32 questionnaires into De Bruyne and Greeff (2000) model of conflict resolution mechanisms. The results are summaries through one—sample statistics in the table below.

Table 4 shows marital conflict resolution strategies practiced by couples in Durbete town. To determine whether the observed magnitudes in each coping mechanisms of marital conflict were significantly different from the test value (3) or not, a one sample t-test was employed.

Table 4. One sample t- test for the coping strategies of marital conflict (N =386 and test value =3)

Conflict resolution Styles	Mean	Std. Deviation	t	Df	Sig.(2-tailed)	Mean Difference	95% Confidence Interval of the Difference
							Lower	Upper
Competing	3.4851	1.33470	7.141	385	.000	.48510	.3515	.6187
Collaborating	3.3549	1.11854	6.234	385	.000	.35492	.2430	.4669
Compromising	3.4034	1.10714	7.159	385	.000	.40340	.2926	.5142
Avoiding	3.3404	1.10652	6.044	385	.000	.34041	.2297	.4511
Accommodative	3.5291	1.10575	9.402	385	.000	.52915	.4185	.6398
Third party interference	3.4577	1.12383	8.001	385	.000	.45769	.3452	.5702

The above table indicates that significant mean differences were observed between the hypothesized population means for each conflict resolution styles used by couples and the sample mean of Competing style (M =3.4851, SD =1.33470), t(385) =7.141, p =.000, Collaborating style (M =3.3549, SD =1.11854), t(385) =6.234, p =.000, Compromising style (M =3.4034, SD =1.10714), t(385) =7.159, p =.000, Avoiding style(M =3.3404, SD =1.10652), t(385) =6.044, p =.000, Accommodative style (M =3.5 291, SD =1.10575), t(385) =9.402, p = .000,Third-party interference (M =3.4577, SD = 1.12383), t (385) = 8.001, p = .000. Moreover, the result indicates that all competing, collaborating, Compromising, avoiding, accommodative and third-party interference are mostly practiced by married couples in Durbete town.

According to the responses of the interviewee, most of the time when there is a conflict between couples; they solve the problem through the involvement of others like peers, religious leaders, local elders and affiliated persons to deal with them. In addition to the above mentioned conflict resolution style mostly practiced by couples in Durbete town, there is involvement of children involve in the conflict resolution processes. Meaning that, when conflict arises between couples, they discuss with their own children to solve it easily.

The other conflict resolution system although couples are using it sometimes are police and the courtroom. According to their explanation, when their marital conflict reaches a peak stage, they resolve it through police and courtroom. As they said, police and courtroom are functional if and only if the other above mentioned mechanisms are not found effective and couples recommend using this option as the last.

4. Discussion

The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence, causes, consequences and coping strategies of marital conflict between couples. Based on the basic research questions of this study, the researcher obtained findings. The discussion of the current findings with previous research findings and literature are presented based on the five basic research questions of this study as follows:

4.1. Prevalence of marital conflict in Durbete town

Data results confirmed that the prevalence of marital conflict from 2017 to 2019 is increasing from year to year and also indicated that couples frequently engaged in conflict. The personal opinion revealed in qualitative data about its prevalence indicated that the number of couples who engaged in marital conflict is increasing from time to time. The finding of Somjit Prueksaritanond and Saisunee Tubtimtes (2015) revealed that 83.9% of the sample had conflicts with their spouses in 12 months. The conflict events occurred seldom and occasionally at 30.2%, while often (once or twice a month) and always (every week) at 59.1%. Additionally, the finding of (Somit prueksaritanod, 2015) indicated that the prevalence of marital conflict is increasing year to year. In Ethiopia, though the researchers couldn’t get previous studies explicitly focused on the prevalence of marital conflict, t local related study on the prevalence of divorce studied by Yeshework et al. (2019). It indicated that the prevalence of divorce is increasing year to year in Bahir Dar city resulting from economic, social and psychosocial factors.

4.2. Major causes of marital conflict

This study discovered that couples in Durbete town experience conflict because of psychological, gender related, sexual, economic and socio cultural factors. This finding is supported by a study conducted in South Nations and Nationality Region by Yacob (2007), showed that gender related, psychological, sexual related and economic factors were the major perceived causes of marital conflict.

Besides, Tolorunleke (2014) indicates couples in Jimu experience marital conflicts under physical, social and economic causes but not revealed psychological, gender related, and sexual factors as the causes of marital conflict. The result of Tolorunleke (2014) supports the economic factors revealed in the current study.

In Ethiopia, previous researchers did not identify or compute the causes of marital conflict under these five factors. for instance, Meaza (2014) indicates that; money/financial issues, impatience/lack of tolerance, aggressiveness, lack of demonstration of affection, communication issues, in-laws interference and lack of responsibilities in household affairs were the major causes of marital conflict in Jemo-1,Addis Ababa city. Similarly, Tiruwork (2015) explained that unshared home responsibilities, lack of affectionate communication and financial problems is strongly associated with marital conflict. The finding of Afework (2010) and Askalemariam and Minwagaw (2014), indicated that marital conflict can be caused by psychological factors but not indicated gender related, sexual, socio cultural and economic factors as the causes of marital conflict.

Wodajeneh (2006) had shown the major factors of marital conflict in three domains. These are; Affective factors: like lack of interest (of wives/husbands), lack of happiness (of wives/husbands), and lack of expectation, suspiciousness and jealousy of wives or husbands. Cognitive factors: like communication problems, difference in life plan and vision, immaturity of wives/husbands, irresponsibility of wife’s/husbands.

Behavioral factors: like incompatible behavior, verbal abuse by husband, stingier of the husband, physical abuse of husband, cruelty of husband. And he indicated Economic factors: like inadequate housing, financial problems, and addictive factors: like alcoholism of the husband, husband smoking and Social factors: like friction with relatives. Additionally, Olugbenga (2018), revealed that poor handling of family finances, communication gap, time devoted to children, and difference in income level are considered as the most prominent causes of marital conflict.

The result of this study is not matched with the work of Demeke (2019) which had revealed that the current age of partners, educational status, number of years partners stayed in marriage relation, sexual relationship, infidelity, monthly income, financial management and interference of families and/or friends in the life of partners significantly predicted marital conflict. However, gender, arrangement of marriage, and household activities equally shared by both partners did not predict marital conflict. What makes the disparity of this finding from Demeke (2019) findings is the instrument; his work instrument is different from this study instrument at all.

This study also asserted that unequal use of money, the misuse of social media, misconceptions of gender role, a matter of caring kids, communication barriers and unrealistic expectations are the major causes for marital conflict in Durbete town. This result is supported by previous studies. For example, Masunungure and Mbwirire (2016) found out that social media platforms if misused may be an enemy not only of marital life but also in general it is the cause of conflict. Similarly, (Olson and Olson, 2000), indicates when the couples become married, there is power, how to spend money and how time is spent, these things lead to conflict because people view the world from a wide variety of perspectives and have different goals.

Furthermore, (Brown, 2008) indicated misunderstanding is the most commonly reported relationship problem among couples. And unwillingness to take time to genuinely listen and care to understand the idea of the partner and includes unhealthy criticisms, abusive language and indifferent attitude. (Sheri & Stritof, 2013) indicated that even though many women work outside the home, they still tend to do most of the household chores.

4.3. Consequences of marital conflict among couples

This study revealed that suffering from stress after conflict with their own spouses, feeling of depression, Feeling of grief, worry about what others say beyond the disturbance with their own spouses, feeling of despair and hopelessness are the major consequences of marital conflict in Durbete town. This finding has not been publicized by previous researchers in Ethiopia. But, this result is similar to the finding of Collins (1988) which indicated that marital conflict is accompanied by a range of emotions such as anxiety, quit, sadness, depression, anger, bitterness, frustration and hopelessness.

The is study also confirmed that when the couples disturb each other, their children become stressed, irritable, sad, distressed and exposed for other psychological problems. Moreover, the major consequences of marital conflict on children observed in Durbete town are becoming absent from school, develop delinquent behavior, faced with loss of control, have low self-esteem and feeling of hopelessness. This finding is relatively supported by research findings of Cummings and Davies (1994) which indicated family conflict is a primary predictor of maladjustment in children, and an assertion corroborated and Emery (1982) that found marital discord is strongly associated with childhood behaviour problems.

4.4. Coping strategies of marital conflict

This study exposed that couples frequently resolve conflicts in their marriage by using competing, collaborating, Compromising, avoiding, accommodative and third party interference. Previous researchers identified the coping strategies of marital conflict among couples. For instance, Prueksaritanond et al., (2015) indicated that avoiding was the most commonly used conflict management method, followed by verbal abuse and physical abuse in primary care.

Meaza (2014) indicated that Collaborative style (the goal is problem solving), accommodative (nonassertive, when spouse disregards one’s own needs and accedes the partner’s desires) and compromise (give and take) conflict resolution style are mechanisms utilized by most of the respondents but no indicated competing, avoiding and third party interferences as a coping strategies of marital conflict.

Similarly, Olugbenga (2018), Patterns and causes of Marital Conflict among staff of selected Universities in Southwest Nigeria. The results showed that 67.1% of the staff indicated that they experienced a demand-withdraw pattern, while 26.8% experienced constructive pattern. Only 6.1% experienced a destructive pattern.

According to Hocker & Wilmot, (1998), no one style of conflict resolution is automatically superior to another and there are advantages and disadvantages to all styles of conflict resolution. In addition to the survey results, the qualitative data indicated that involvement of others like peers, religious leaders, local elders, affiliated persons and children are the coping strategies of marital conflict frequently applied by couples in Durbete town. This result is supported by Habtamu (2005) which states that asking for elders’ and religious leaders’ interference, calling on elders or relatives and discussing the problem are the main coping strategies of marital conflict.

5. Conclusion and recommendations

5.1. Conclusion

Marital conflict is one of the social problems that increases from time to time and year to year in Durbete town. Conflicts are inevitable in marital life, many marital relationships of these participants seems frequently disturbed by a variety of causes specifically in psychological, gender related, sexual, economic and socio cultural factors. Besides, unequal use of money, the misuse of social media, misconceptions of gender roles, a matter of caring kids, communication barriers and unrealistic expectations are the major causes of marital. Because of marital conflict couples are suffering from different physical, psychological, social and economic problems, as a result children from conflicting couples absent in school, develop delinquency behavior, loss of control, isolation, low self-esteem and sense of hopelessness. Hence, the intervention from different stakeholders such as town administration, social development agencies and NGOs is highly needed to minimize the problem of marital conflict and its negative consequences on couples and children.

5.2. Recommendations

So as to minimize the problem of marital conflict in Durbete town, the researchers forwarded the following recommendations:

1. This study did not reveal that counseling is a coping strategy of marital conflict due to the absence of effective family and marriage counselors and couples awareness on counseling. Hence, Durbete town administrators shall give great emphasis for the problem and assign relevant professionals like social workers, marriage and family counselors to do well in the area of marriage.

2. If possible, Durbete town administers shall work on the establishment of public and private counseling or family therapy centers.

3. The town administration Women and children office shall recruit social workers and psychologists who can provide varied social services and assistance to improve the social and psychological functioning of couples who experience marital conflict.

4. The findings of this study indicated that couples use the five types of conflict resolution strategies (avoiding, collaborating, competing, third party interference and compromising. Among those five conflict resolution strategies, future researchers should be better to investigate which coping strategies bring more closeness and affective bonds with themselves after couples encounter conflict.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Abelneh Shemaye Tasew

Koye is an academician whose educational background begins with a B.A degree in Educational Planning and Management and Masters of Arts degree in Social Psychology. He has been an assistant professor of social psychology since 2015. He has been serving as a teacher, researcher, and trainer since 2008 in Haramaya University and Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. He has been teaching courses in Psychology programs at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Koye's Publications are: Attitude of Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching (PGDT) student teachers’ towards teaching profession; practice and challenges of Teachers CPD; prevalence, causes and consequences of divorce; problem gambling: types, risk factors and consequences; and prevalence, causes and consequences of academic cheating. Koye is a doctoral student in Higher Education leadership and management at a joint PhD Program at Tampere University, Finland and Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. His research interests include, but are not limited to, change management, community intervention, marriage, media utilization, and the like.