Abstract

The study investigated the impact of premarital counselling on marital adjustment among christian couples in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Nigeria. The researcher formulated two research questions were answered, two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey design was adopted, the population of the study comprised of 30,000 married couples in the Federal Capital Territory Abuja. The sample size was 380 Christians couples selected through stratified, simple random and purposive sampling technique. The instrument titled premarital counselling and marital adjustment questionnaire (PCMAQ) was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by two experts from the Department of Guidance and Counselling, Faculty of Education, Nasarawa state university Keffi, and demonstrated a reliability coefficient of 0.82 using Cronbach Apha coefficient. Mean, standard deviation was used to answer the research questions, while Independent sample t-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that premarital counselling has impact on conflict resolution skills, communication skills, among Christian couples in Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) Abuja, Nigeria. In conclusion, premarital counselling is impactful and effective in fostering couples marital adjustment with respect to conflict resolution skills, effective communication skills, financial management skills, and sexual intimacy in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Nigeria. The study recommended that the churches and faith-based organization, counsellors should include comprehensive sessions on conflict resolution in their premarital counselling curriculum, integration of communication training in premarital counselling programmes, inclusion of financial management modules in premarital counselling and churches and Christian counsellors should include well-structured faith-based lessons on sexual intimacy during premarital counselling for a sustainable marital adjustment among Christian couples in (FCT) Abuja, Nigeria