Marital dysharmony in Malta

Abstract

During a study assignment at the Family and Marital Unit of Ċentru Ħidma Soċjali, Santa Venera, I became aware not only of the magnitude of family dysharmony in our country but also of the diversity of problems threatening the stability of the marital relationship. As my interest in Malta grew, to the situation of marriage in Malta grew, my belief that all is not well in this perhaps the most important of human relationship was alimented by the multitude of letters on the topic in local periodicals as well as interventions in phone-in programs on the radio. Believing that the well being of society depends to a great extent on its basic unit - the family, I decided to make a contribution, however modest in attempting to explore problems afflicting marriage, on which, in our society, the creation and maintenance of the family depends. This attempt took the form of a questionnaire which was sent to 524 heads of household, either the husband or the wife, from 66 localities in Malta, in a self addressed and postage paid envelope. The questionnaire contained several questions on marital relationship and it included the Marital Satisfaction Inventory by H.J. EYSENCK which is a modified version of the widely used LOCKE-WALLIS questionnaire. The idea was, not so much as to calculate the prevalence of marital disruption, which can be studied from records of the civil and the ecclesiastical courts, but to explore problems or dysharmonies "normal marriages". marital dysharmony does not necessarily separation, although the potential is there. After all, marital dysharmony does not necessarily end up in separation although the potential is there. Neither is marital dysharmony necessarily apparent to the observer from without the family involved. In planning the study, other options were considered. Direct interviewing of persons chosen randomly from the electoral register would probably produce a higher response rate, but it is time consuming and the reliability of answers would be jeopardised because responders would not be anonymous. Direct interviewing of couples who are already separated or in the process of obtaining a legal separation would in my opinion be looking at the tip of an iceberg. Sending a questionnaire to a number of people from all 66 towns and villages in Malta also had its problems. Only 23.3% chose to return the questionnaire. These could have been those who were more interested in answering the questions because it touched their problems. On the other hand, it is also possible to have attracted a greater proportion of those with no great problems; they might in a way be boasting of how good their marriage is. The possibility, even a strong possibility of a biased selection cannot be ruled out. Neither can the direction of the bias be known. However, the responders had the liberty to answer in the privacy of their home in strict confidence. There is no reason to doubt the reliability of the answered questionnaires and the anonymity is likely to have helped in this respect. Despite its limitation, I hope that this study would be of use in helping to understand factors leading to or causing marital dysharmony in the Maltese society.