Relationship between premarital counselling and marital success: Perceptions of married Christians in Ghana

The period before marriage is extremely critical in determining the success of the marriage. The period allows would-be couples the opportunity to learn more about each other and make informed decisions regarding the marriage. Churches in Ghana have for some years now organized premarital counselling programmes to prepare would-be couples for the realities of marriage and family life. They have obliged members to go through this premarital counselling before the marriage is celebrated in the church. Reports on increasing cases of divorce in Ghana calls for investigation into the role of premarital counselling programmes in marital success. A sample of 300 married men and women were purposively selected for this study. The results showed that there is a significant mean difference between male (M=1.24, SD=0.16) and female (M=1.19, SD=0.15) married Christians regarding their perception on the essence of pre-marital counselling. Also, the duration of pre-marital counselling did not significantly affect the effectiveness of premarital counselling given (r = 0.016; n = 300; p> 0.78). Christian married couples held a negative perception of the effectiveness of pre-marital counselling. Based on the findings, it was recommended that churches and other religious bodies continue to stress the importance of pre-marital counselling to the members. Counsellors should be more proactive in giving marital counselling to married people to compliment the pre-marital counselling married people are given.   Key words: Premarital, counselling, married, Christians, marital success.