The Relevance of Effective Communication in Marital Relationships: A Study of The Marriage Enrichment Program at Nairobi Pentecostal Church-Valley Road

Abstract

Communication is a double edged sword. It provides opportunities for learning and socialization between spouses within the marriage. At the same time, communication not done effectively can send out wrong signals to your spouse and this may lead to distress in marriage. Most marriage counselors have noted with great concern the ignorance some couples show about the issue of effective communication in their marriage. They spend most of the time blaming their problems in marriage on infidelity. The time spent on conversations between spouses at home or far apart from each other is an indicator of their commitment towards each other and the stability of their families. The researcher sought to find out the levels of communication in marriage and to evaluate the impact of ineffective communication in marriage. The respondents were in three focus groups, one for the married men, another for the married women and the last one was done among spouses.The research was a survey that applied both qualitative and quantitative analysis of data. The researcher was interested in analyzing information in a logical way in order to come up with some useful recommendations and conclusions. The findings revealed that the majority of the spouses were knowledgeable about effective communication and the consequences of ineffective communication between them. One of the main findings of the research is that spouses admitted that communication was given a backseat and had not been adequately addressed as a serious problem to the stability of marriages. Some spouses were very worried about fighting losing battles in their marriages over issues that could be simply and effectively solved through proper dialogue at home. Some participants reported that they would rather be alone than struggle in a marriage that was never meant to be successful. Others said that they were only clinging on to their marriages for the sake of the children and the investments that they had made over the years. Recommendations have been made to the churches, marriage counselors and most importantly, the spouses whose marriages could end up being a failure because of lack of effective communication.