This thesis examined the influence that premarital preparation had on the level of complaints in marriages and the amount of perceptual accuracy that couples had in their marriage. The data for this thesis were taken from Wave I and Wave II of the Utah Governor’s Commission on Marriage study on newlyweds. The research examined four questions: (1) Do husbands and wives who have reported higher helpfulness of premarital preparation activities have fewer strong complaints in their marriage? (2) Do husbands and wives who have reported the helpfulness of premarital preparation activities have greater perceptual accuracy in their marriages? (3) Which types of premarital preparation activities are associated with strong complaints? (4) Which types of premarital preparation activities do husbands and wives find to be most helpful? Results revealed that those who reported the helpfulness of premarital preparation activities had fewer complaints than those who did not find those activities helpful. This study finds no statistical significance between the reported helpfulness of premarital preparation activities and perceptual accuracy. The relationship between premarital preparation activities and strong complaints is presented. Preparation activities that husbands and wives found to be most helpful are ranked and presented. A discussion of the findings, limitations, and suggestions for future research is also presented.

The objective of this study is to examine the types of problems faced by Brazilian couples in the sample, the gender differences in the perception of marital problems, and the associations between marital problems and marital satisfaction. The sample used in this study was part of the third wave of data collection of a longitudinal study of 126 families living in Porto Alegre, a city in southern Brazil. The RDAS was the instrument used to assess marital satisfaction. Marital problems were identified by asking participants to check the problems they perceive in their marriage from a list of common marital problems (money, children, sex, jealousy, mother's family of origin, father's family of origin, drugs, alcohol, other). Data analysis consisted of the study of frequencies, Pearson's correlations between the number of problems identified by husbands and wives and their RDAS scores and test comparisons between groups of husbands and wives. A total of 16 regression analyses were performed to identify the impact of each marital problem on marriage satisfaction of both husbands and wives. Husbands' and wives' RDAS scores were the dependent variable in all regressions and each problem, age, race, number of children, and income were the independent variables. Results showed that money, children, jealousy, sex, and family of origin were common problems faced by Brazilian couples in the sample. There were few gender differences, with the only differences being that wives were more likely to report sex as a problem and husbands were more likely to report that their wife's family of origin was a problem. The number of problems had a negative effect on marital satisfaction of husbands and wives. Results also show that sex had a significant impact on marital satisfaction of both wives and husbands and alcohol had a significant impact on marital satisfaction of wives in the sample.

Using data from a nationally representative sample of 723 married adults, this study explored the association of age differences between spouses at the time of marriage on various aspects of marital quality years into the marriage. Four groups (full sample, husband-older, wife-older, and same-age marriages) were compared to see how marital quality was affected by age difference and several other moderating variables. Spousal interactions increased among wife-older marriages, but not among the other groups. An increased level of husband participation in household labor was linked with an increase in marital happiness and a decrease in marital problems for wife-older marriages. It also was related to a decrease in marital happiness for husband-older marriages as well as a decrease in spousal interaction for all groups except wife-older marriages, which showed no significant association to the division of household labor. Finally, a more traditional approach to gender roles among the same-age marriages was associated with a decrease in marital problems and a decrease in spousal interaction.

There is a shortage of clergy, at least in the Roman Catholic Church (cf Schoenherr&Sorenson 1982:23; Heilbronner 1998:11; Tentler 1998:348; Carroll 2001:1; Fernandez 2001:ix-x; see Seidler 1979:764; Berger 1987; Hoge et al 1988:264, 280). The Protestant Church in general is experiencing more of a distribution problem than a shortage (cf Chaves 2001:36; see Jud et al 1970:59). The two greatest hindrances to addressing this clergy distribution problem among Protestant churches is a lack of adequate compensation for clergy and the undesirable location, as perceived by clergy, of the church (Chaves 2001:36; see Jud et al 1970:59). Challenges such as secularization, duality of vocation, time management, change in type of ministry, family issues, congregational and denominational conflict, burnout, sexual misconduct, divorce or marital problems, and suicide, affect clergy. Studies on the shortage of clergy have been conducted mostly in the USA and Europe and not in South Africa. This study seeks to address this research gap by means of a practical theological grounded theory exploration of the exodus of clergy. Grounded theory methodology is used to identify the reasons why clergy trained at a Bible College of a Protestant Charismatic mega church leave full-time pastoral ministry. Findings correspond to previous studies with two reasons appearing more frequently than others: responding to a call and leadership related issues. Firstly, respondents differed in their replies with respect to reconciling their leaving full-time pastoral ministry to their call with responses of: not being called, a dual call, or called but left anyway. Secondly, respondents indicated that leadership influence was mostly negative with regard to affirming their call. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Practical Theology / unrestricted