Sweethearting, a study of infidelity among married males and females in the commonwealth of the Bahamas, 1999
Grant, Mishelle T.
1999-05-01
1990-1999
The present study had four objectives. First, to ascertain whether or not a group of independent variables, namely, cultural support, marital satisfaction, religious commitment, financial resources, health risks/concerns, history of infidelity, consequences/impact on marriages, age, and gender, were related to sweethearting. Secondly, to investigate the attitudes and behaviors of married males and females in the Bahamas with regard to infidelity. The third objective was to examine the opinions of married Bahamians in reference to this behavior on marriages. The final objective was to obtain feedback from married males and females in the Bahamas regarding what social changes they considered necessary to prevent sweethearting/infidelity. A relational research design was selected in order to address the aforementioned objectives. An anonymous, self administered questionnaire which consisted of thirty eight items was administered to one hundred and forty four participants. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was employed to perform the following statistical procedures: Multiple Regression and Chi square. In addition, descriptive statistics were generated to summarize and organize the data. Multiple Regression analysis revealed that six of the nine independent variables were significant predictors of sweethearting/infidelity among married Bahamians.These variables included: history of infidelity, cultural support, consequences/impact on marriages, health risks, religious commitment and marital satisfaction. Similar results were also obtained for Chi square analyses, and gender was significantly related to various measures of infidelity: history of infidelity, including number of sexual partners and length of extramarital relationship. Additionally, descriptive statistics indicated that most of the participants disapproved of infidelity for both males and females, and they considered this behavior to be destructive to marriages. The final objective to be addressed focused on feedback from participants regarding social changes they considered necessary to prevent sweethearting. While a small proportion of the sample felt nothing could be done, most of the participants were optimistic it could be prevented.
text
application/pdf
dissertation
Master of Social Work (MSW)
Clark Atlanta University
School of Social Work
Ajo, Amos
Georgia--Atlanta
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/cau.td:1999_grant_mishelle_t
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/
