The Impact of Marriage Contract Type on Divorce Likelihood: Evidence from Rivers State, Nigeria.

Abstract:

This study investigated the impact of marriage contract type (Statutory and Customary) on divorce likelihood in Rivers State, Nigeria. Data consisting of Demographic, Socio-economic and Treatment related variables were collected from Judiciary High court and Customary court for a period of 10 years for the analysis. The Factors estimated using survival analysis techniques were; Age at Marriage of Husband and Wife, Presence of Children, Duration of Marriage, Employment Status of Husband and Wife, Educational Level of Husband and Wife, Number of Counseling Sessions and Court Sittings attended, as well as marriage type. The Cox PH model revealed that marriage type does not influence the rate of divorce among couple in Rivers State. For Statutory marriage, significant determinants of divorce includes: duration of marriage (p = 0.000), employment status of husband (p = 0.028), and Presence of children (p = 0.045). For Customary marriage, significant determinants of divorce includes: presence of children (p = 0.018), and number of Court Sittings (p = 2.83e-06). Ironically, the result revealed that the presence of children increases the risk of statutory marriage divorce by 72% and reduces the risk of customary marriage divorce by 41%. The findings of this study using Pearson chi-square test for independence between the two types of marriage showed that chi-square statistic value χ2 = 0.0066 and the p-value = 0.936, indicates that divorce is independent of type of marriage contracted. This means that there is no relationship between the type of marriage contracted in Rivers State and the likelihood of divorce. Overall, this study contributed to the understanding of divorce likelihood in Nigeria, highlighting the complexity of factors influencing marital stability. The study thereby recommended among others that policy makers should focus on addressing socio-economic factors influencing marital stability.