Abstract:
Marriage has undergone a lot of transformation some of which are as a result of modernisation. One of the notable effects of modernization is the increase in instability of marital unions. This has sparked some interest in research into marital instability in developed countries. In the developing world including Sub-Saharan Africa, little is known about the age at first marriage and other factors that can influence marital instability. Marital instability has significant impact on the parties involved, man, woman and children if there are any. Children are often the worst hit by the marital dissolution as they usually end up with only one of the parents. The study examined the relationship between age at first marriage and marital instability in Ghana, making a comparative analysis between men and women in the data used. The study used the sixth round of the demographic and health survey (GDHS, 2014) to evaluate the various socio-economic and demographic factors of males and females in Ghana. The sample size was four thousand six hundred and seventy-seven for females and one thousand seven hundred and sixty five male respondents. Respondents who had been in union once were selected for the study. The results indicated that 11.5% of female respondents were either divorced or separated as compared to 9.1% of male respondents. The factors that influence marital instability for males are different from that of females. Age at first marriage was a significant predictor of marital instability for females and not males. Apart from employment status and religion, none of the other factors (education, ethnicity, place of residence, time of first birth and sex, and wealth status) predicts marital instability for males. Individuals with no religious affiliation, females who marry before the age of 18 and males that are unemployed have the highest risk of marital instability. Based on these findings, it is recommended that religious bodies should strengthen their pre- and post-marital counselling to reduce the level of marital instability.
