Young people in preparation for marriage

Abstract

Marriage is an ongoing journey which starts on the wedding day. The pre-marriage period is an exciting time for the young people when they can easily be distracted by preparations and arrangements for the wedding. While wedding preparations are longer and take a lot of energy out of the young people, marriage preparations are quite different as they involve the formation of the young couple. The aim of this study was to discover on what grounds young people were building their relationship and if they understood what a Christian marriage involved. Another aim was to discover whether the preparation given to young people before marriage was helping them towards their journey for marriage. The study focused on traditional and contemporary marriages and the social impact on gender roles. Marriage preparation is essential to cause awareness to contemporary problems which often lead to marital breakdowns. A quantitative approach was taken to collect data from 95 participants and an interview was conducted with Fr. George Dalli, a former director of the Catholic Institute, who has been preparing young people for marriage for these past 24 years. From the data collected, it resulted that the respondents were building their relationship on friendship, healthy communication and trust. The majority of the participants had a good family background and valued traditions such as religion and family. Some results indicated that the Cana preparation course was much needed as the courses helped the young people to understand their partner better and deepened their interpersonal relationship. The results were corroborated with local and international literature. The project ends with recommendations for further research to enhance pre-marriage courses to young people who want to enter a church marriage and to introduce courses to young people opting for a civil marriage.