Impact of Premarital Expectation on Marital Satisfaction Among Members of Zetseat Apostolic Reformation Church Addis Ababa: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
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Date
2021-08
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AAU
Abstract
This qualitative research explores the impact of pre-marital expectations on marriage
satisfaction among members of Zetseat Apostolic Reformation Church (ZARC). Five married
people were selected to attend a semi-structured interview; The interview consisted of questions
around their expectations of marriage before getting married, how they found it in the real-life
situation and how their expectations impacted their marriage satisfaction. An Interpretative
Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyze the data. The various themes that emerged
indicate the existence of different dimensions of expectation about marriage before getting
married and how the pre-marital expectations go within the marriage and impact their marriage
satisfaction.
The identified themes were categorized under two superordinate themes. Under the first
superordinate theme, which is called the general expectations, seven themes were identified:
personality expectation, financial expectations, emotional intimacy, parenting style expectations,
gender difference, and sexual expectation. In addition, all of the previous emergent themes, when
combined into the second superordinate theme, influenced overall marriage satisfaction. As a
result, the participants felt satisfied when their expectations got fulfilled and unmet expectations,
on the other hand, harmed marriage satisfaction among the participants.
In conclusion, this research found that people’s expectations about marriage tend to affect the
satisfaction they have during their marriage. It was also identified that further research should
be done to explore the exact effect from a cause-effect perspective