This study examined whether a difference in marital satisfaction existed among pre-marital cohabitating couples and non pre-marital cohabitating couples. Twenty of the couples had cohabitated and twenty had never cohabitated prior to their marriage. The forty couples were from the Atlanta metropolitan and LaGrange, Georgia areas and were selected for the study utilizing a non probability/purposive snowball sampling technique. The couples were referred by previous participants and were screened in order to ensure that all eligibility requirements were met. The couples' ages ranged from 20-45 years and all couples were involved in their first marriage. The Marital Satisfaction Inventory Revised (MSI-R) was administered to all forty couples in order to ascertain differences in marital satisfaction and to determine an interaction effect of gender and cohabitation status. The MSI-R is a 150 question, true-false inventory which measures marital satisfaction by testing nine marital scales and two validity scales. The findings of the study indicated that there were significant differences in marital satisfaction among premarital cohabitating and non pre-marital cohabitating husbands and wives. The significance between the two groups were Aggression, Family History of Distress, Time Together, Role Orientation, and Disagreement about Finances.

Marriage is an important phenomenon that occurs in most societies across the world. Within the Islamic belief system, marriage is regarded as a sacred union and is obligatory on all Muslim people. This qualitative study explored the perceptions that eight young Muslim South African adults have regarding marriage, using semistructured interviews. The data was analysed by following a thematic content analysis framework which highlighted aspects such as the extent to which participants ascribed to their religious beliefs regarding marriage, any societal influences that may have shaped their views on marriage as well as the factors they believed lead to the success as well as the breakdown of marriages. From the results, it was evident that young Muslim South African adults had positive views on marriage, and expected to get married at some point in their lives. This was primarily due to their religious Islamic backgrounds and family upbringings. Moreover, the results indicated that young Muslim adults are more flexible with regard to engaging in pre-marital romantic relationships, yet continued to hold marriage in high regard. Participants outlined factors such as teamwork from spouses, trust, commitment, understanding, honesty as well as communication between spouses as integral in achieving and maintaining a successful marriage. These perceptions are discussed in relation to findings from other studies. The need for pre-marital programmes for young Muslim adults is highlighted.

In this thesis, Women and Tradition in Turkish Television culture-The modern day representation of rape and pre-marital sexuality looks into how rape and pre-marital sexuality is represented under traditional gender roles. This is a cultural study that tries to understand the sexual identity of women trying to be represented on television series in Turkey. Two television serials “Fatmagülün Suçu Ne?” and “Hayat Devam Ediyor” are selected as case studies. The two main characters “Fatmagül” and “Hayat” are analyzed in both television serials. The main research question presented in the thesis, “With a particular focus on gender representation, how are the issues of rape and extra-marital sex addressed in the Turkish television serials “Hayat Devam diyor” and “Fatmagül’ün suçu ne?” The particular of representation of gender sexuality is in the traditional and social sphere. The theoretical framework is mainly based on theories based on “Feminism” with a focus on “Radical Feminism” and “Patriarchy”. The main methodological framework used is “critical discourse analysis”.  The findings in the thesis through the analysis of episodes dealing with rape and pre-marital sexuality the representations of the main female characters are more negatively in their social spheres. They are excluded from society and represented as the second-class citizen. With this study my aim is to look into the relationship of representations of gender, which will bring more attention to the sensitive topics of oppression of gender sexuality and the representation through gendered realities in the television serials.

Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Social Work in the Department of Social Work at the University of Zululand, 2000. / Dissertation on "The need for pre-marital counselling in preventing domestic violence" is the outcome of the researcher's concern about domestic violence that is widespread in our society. On reviewing the literature, she found that social workers and their professional associates are trying hard to fight against this disease. However, very little is being achieved as this disease in increasing day by day. Revelation by literature that pre-marital counselling, as a primary intervention, is seldom applied by practitioner that are trying to stop domestic violence, motivated the researcher to undertake this study. In her introduction to this study, the researcher stated the problem, her motivation to undertake this study, its objectives, assumptions, value and limitations, and lastly, she - defined the terms. The researcher reviewed literature on explanation of domestic violence. Her focus was on its causes, forms, effects, prevalence, common features of human violence, individual features of men who batter, why women stay in abusive relationship and the "way they respond to this domestic violence. She further looked into the preventative intervention to domestic violence, focussing on three levels of preventions, namely, preparation for marriage, which is primary prevention, promotion of the quality of marriage and family life, which is secondary prevention, treatment of marital dysfunction, which is tertiary prevention as well as traditional ways of preparing for marriage. The design the researcher used was exploratory/descriptive in nature. Subjects of the study were selected by means of purposive sampling. The sampling units were the social workers of the Department of Social Welfare and Population development, stationed at Madadeni and their clients (ten families) that presented domestic violence related problems. Madadeni community is situated at about 13 km, south of Newcastle in Kwazulu Natal. Interview schedules were pre-tested on three social workers and three families. Interviews and studying of the files of the individual prospective respondents were used to collect data. Frequency tables, columns and pie charts with percentages were used in presentation, analysis and interpretation of data. During the analysis of data, the researcher looked for similarities and dissimilarities. She presented data as a descriptive account, organised it into categories on the basis of themes and proposed hypotheses. Lastly, she gave a summary, drew conclusions regarding the need for premarital counselling in the area and made recommendations. The overall conclusion that was made by the researcher was that pre-marital counselling is needed in combating domestic violence. *

This research set out to investigate factors that lead to seemingly prevalent pre-marital sex by Botswana Seventhday Adventist youth aging between 12 and 30 years. A 31- item questionnaire, divided into four sections, was used on a group of 45 youths. It was discovered that 78% of the youths studied had been involved in pre-marital sex at some point in their lives. Thirty-seven percent were still practicing it. The most vulnerable age range was 14 to 18 years, but some had started experimenting with sex as early as six years. Some of the contributing factors to the youth's involvement in sex included media, friends and lack of knowledge due to parents not giving them guidance.Prevention of pre-marital sex can be made possible by the cooperation of entities like the family, the church, the school and the individual. Hence, the suggested model called the Integrated Sexuality Education. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology)

This research set out to investigate factors that lead to seemingly prevalent pre-marital sex by Botswana Seventhday Adventist youth aging between 12 and 30 years. A 31- item questionnaire, divided into four sections, was used on a group of 45 youths. It was discovered that 78% of the youths studied had been involved in pre-marital sex at some point in their lives. Thirty-seven percent were still practicing it. The most vulnerable age range was 14 to 18 years, but some had started experimenting with sex as early as six years. Some of the contributing factors to the youth's involvement in sex included media, friends and lack of knowledge due to parents not giving them guidance.Prevention of pre-marital sex can be made possible by the cooperation of entities like the family, the church, the school and the individual. Hence, the suggested model called the Integrated Sexuality Education. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology)