PSYCHOSOCIAL PREDICTORS OF FEAR OF MARRIAGE AMONG SINGLE YOUNG MEN IN WUKARI (GAMOPHOBIA)

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine some social predictors of fear of marriage involvement among unmarried young men in Wukari, Taraba State. To achieve this aim, three specific objectives were formulated and transformed into three research questions and three corresponding hypotheses. Consequently, correlational design was adopted and two instruments titled Gamophobic Behavior Inventory (GBI) and Psychosocial Variable Questionnaire (PVQ) which were well validated and had reliability coefficients of 0.76 and 0.86, respectively, through Cronbach Alpha. The sample of the study included 261 unmarried young men from age 25-35 carefully identified for the study. Both research questions and hypotheses, predictive relationship of the variables was the focus, simple regression statistic and analysis of variance (ANOVA) associated with it were used to answer the research questions and test the tenability of the stated null hypotheses, respectively, at a 0.05 level of significance. The results of the study revealed that two out of the three variables significantly predicted gamophobia among unmarried young men. The variables were masturbation (p=.009<.05) and parental marital background (p=.000<.05). On the other hand, mate selection preference (p=.793>.05) was not a significant predictor of gamophobia in the study. Based on these findings, it was recommended, among others, that in the area of marriage, premarital counselling and counsellors should be made available to resolve marriage fear. This is because many other things influence love. Young men should be taught to resist factors such as masturbation, parental marital background, etc. to avoid a phobia of marriage (gamophobia).