Loneliness as Correlate of Marital Satisfaction among Civil Servants in Nassarawa and Benue States, Nigeria

This study examined loneliness as correlate of marital satisfaction among civil servants in Nassarawa and Benue States. One research question and one hypothesis guided the study. Correlational Design was adopted. Sample size of 400 civil servants out of the population of 56,962 was used. Two self-developed questionnaires titled ‘Psycho-Social Factors Questionnaire (PSFSQ) and Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire’ (MFQ) were used to collect data. For the reliability of the instrument, the questionnaires were administered on 40 participants comprising of 20 men and 20 women. The test yielded a reliability coefficient of .84 Cronbach’s Alpha on Psycho-social factors and .85 Cronbach’s Alpha on marital satisfaction. The questionnaires yielded a reliability coefficient of .90 Cronbach’s Alpha. Descriptive statistics of frequency count and percentage were employed for the demographic variables while Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation coefficient was used to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses at .05 significance level. Result showed that, there was significant relationships between the variable (Loneliness) and marital satisfaction of civil servants in Nassarawa States of Nigeria. It was recommended that civil servants should be counselled during premarital counselling and marital counselling to create time for bonding as a couple in order to avert loneliness in their marriage.