NAME: WYCLIFFE NYAITI

DEPARTMENT – M.ED G/C

COURSE CODE: EDU801

ASSIGNMENT

QUESTION:
Impact of joint account on marital adjustment of
working class husband and wives in Yola North Local
Government Area of Adamawa State

1
Background of the Study

Marriage is an institution where a man and woman are publicly and legally united
in a lasting bond as husband and wife either through traditional, civil or religious
wedding ceremony (Attah, 2012; Marriage Act 2014). Although historically
marriage can be traced only to a five kinds of man-woman relationship on which
marriage and family life are based. They are promiscuity, group marriage
polyandry, polygamy and monogamy. Promiscuity refers to sex relations without
regard to any rule, regulations, age and marital status and blood ties. Group
marriage is many men marrying many women without differential ties binding any
single couple. Polyandry refers to one woman married to several men and
polygamy, one man to several women. Monogamy is one practical all over the
cultures today. Other forms of marriage include levirate marriage which occurs
when a man marries the widow of his dead brother. Here the relationship created
through the original marriage remains. A ghost marriage involves a brother taking
a wife in the name of his dead relations and having children in his name. There is
also a growing trend for a single life, single parenting and same sex marriages
among a small minority of the population, this does not shake the foundations of
marriage.

The concern of this study is monogamy, monogamy is highly practiced all over the
world among Christians and traditional religious practitioners. Monogamy is
popular in many societies today because of the problems associated with marrying
many wives and having many children. The monogamous marriage has the
advantages of ensuring that the parents provide the basic needs of the children such
as food, clothing and education unlike in polygamous family where it is usually
very difficult for parents to train their children and maintain peace. But on the
contrary, it has been also observed that the monogamous families also go through

2
misery and rancor which result to loss of affection, separation and sometimes
divorce.

There are so many factors that can aggravate family disunity. For instance, lack of
understanding, infertility, infidelity, search for self-realization, lack of adequate
communication, sex of children, nagging and money management. It is a fact that
the above mentioned factors if not handled well can lead to divorce of which
money management is very eminent these days. Money according to Nwoye
(1991) is usually scarce and cannot be acquired in any satisfactory amount y any
couple. The newly wedded couples usually have the hope of acquiring enough
wealth to satisfy their needs and enjoy their marriage.

However, in marriage they discover that their money cannot be enough even if it is
based on one or two salaries or possible from family inheritance. They need to
learn how to adjust to the realities of their economic status and their role as
husband and wife in their family money management.

According to African tradition, the husband is bread winner while the wife is the
home maker whose major roles and expectations are to cook food for the family,
clean the house, care for the children and assist the husband in attending to his
farm. Nowadays, a lot of changes have taken place in the society, it is no longer
accurate to think of a typical family as one in which the husband is the sole wage
earner. In most families both husband and wife are in labour force. (Denga, 1986,
Adajoke 1987). It is even a common practice that men marry women who are good
income eanrers rather than marrying for beauty or for men who would not regard
them as mere house wives but who would allow them to develop their potentials
and contribute to the upkeep of the family and national development (Ekpu, 1986).

Nowadays, couples see the acquisition of money as most vital segment of their
lives in which their marriage should revolve. And so a matter of fact when values
3
in conflict, the relationship may be in tension. Power struggle and mutual criticism
usually prevail. All these will assume a breeding ground for marital conflict or
marital maladjustment. Conflict leads to quarrels among couple.

Whenever this quarrel set in, there is always a breakdown in couple’s

communication. This means that the couple is unwilling or unable to discuss
problems openly and objectively. This will also affect their social life, their
interaction with their children and their financial control and budgeting. Infact,
effective communication between couple is the base of all marital problems
solving which promotes marital adjustment. Marital adjustment involves the series
of behaviours used to cope with the new demands of marriage relationship as they
merge (Filani in Nwobi 1997:7). They should realize that the future progress and
continuity of their family lie in their finances.

Another area that need adjustment is social relationship. The man may be the
social type who would like to attend most social functions, while the woman is the
stay at home type. She would be persuaded before she attends social functions, on
the other hand, there are men who would prefer to stay in-doors most of the time
while their wives are the socialites who would virtually attend to social functions.
Whichever the situation may be with gentle prod, one could still brush up one’s
spouse and improve his or her attitude towards social life. Child care is yet another
are that needs adjustment in marriage. Children are special gift of God to man, so
couples should learn the techniques of child disciplines at all time. There should be
no friction between couples in the bit of trying to correct a child in the family. If
there is love and care between their parents, the children will absorb them. If there
is bitterness and hatred in the family the children will copy the same. Every child
to a large extent is a reflection of his family upbringing (Atado 2005:246). In
addition parents should monitor the kind of friends their children associate with.

4
This is because bad companions ruin good character. Children easily learn from
friends and pears. They can copy good as well as bad behaviours from each other.
Always listen to their stone’s and agree on how to give them good counsel which
would help them to adjust better. Marriage as a matter of fact is all about
agreement. Finance in marriage cannot disobey this rule. Couples should agree on
how their income is to be used. This is because the value of money is on what it
can buy, either goods or services, hoarding, stinginess on personal needs or on
relatives and friends at the expense of family needs is dangerous to the family
union and must be avoided (Christian Women Mirror Vol. 4 p12). Proper planning
or realistic budgeting help to minimize power politics in a marriage and thereby
increase intimacy (Lamanna and Riedmann, 1990). Couples who are so intimate no
longer see themselves as two but one. They have nothing to hide from each other
and their finance is not an exception. The find decision as to who should have
custody of the family finances rest with the couples. A family may decide to have
the husband or wife keep the money, or they may both share the responsibility.
Whichever the arrangement the fundamental thing is agreement. Marriage is all
about agreement; finance in marriage cannot disobey this rule.

Inspite of all the struggles and clamour to earn money, the arrangement of it still
poses a lot of problems to marriage. It has been observed that problems relating to
money are the most knotty problems in marriage relationship. There are many
broken homes today because of debt and money mismanagement. Yet couples are
working and earning money. Money management is not so much a technique as it
is an attitude. When we talk about attitude, we are dealing with emotions.
Therefore money management is basically self-management or control of ones
emotions.

5
Nwoye in Atado (2005:164) suggested five models for family money management.
These models are: the wife’s money as emergency fund the wife’s money for her
needs the shared economy, the fifty-fifty and the pooled or mixed economy. It
must be pointed out that none of these models is trouble-free. What works for
family is unique and has its own peculiar problems, there are speculations however
that couples who adopt the pooled or mixed economy adjust better because the
operate joint account and they budget together. The extent to which this is true
remains to be experimentally verified.

A joint account is an account owned by two or more people. It is an account owned

by two related individuals especially husband and wife (Okenyi, 1994:76). The
couples income are pooled together to form a common fund. From this purse the
family needs are regularly serviced, couples who operate joint account usually
understand themselves as no longer two but one. They trust and have confidence in
themselves thereby promoting peace.

It should be noted that the working class couples in Yola North local government
area of Adamawa State are in an academic and commercial environment. The
people are really very busy. Everyone tries to belong socially, academically and
commercially. Couples enroll in academic progammes, go into business or other
activities. Thus the working class are lecturers, teachers and business men and
women.

Based on these observation there is a need to find out what impact the operation of
a joint account by husbands and wives has on marital adjustment in Yola North
Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

Statement of the Problem

6
A joint account is a hotly debated issues among couples, a recent survey from
financial company Varo money Inc. revealed that money couples prefer to
maintain separate bank accounts from their partner, or sometimes have both a joint
account and separate accounts. While 77% of respondents shared fiscal
responsibility with their partners, nearly half (45%) maintain separate bank
accounts from their partners. Among those with joint bank accounts, 23% also
keep a separate personal account. And when it comes to financial secrets, one in
five respondents reported having a secret bank account or credit card their partners
do not know about. This shows that the fact that husband and wife are working
class does not automatically translate to agreement to operate a joint account.
Couples usually give certain reasons for not wanting to operate a joint account.
Some men are of the opinion that some women are too loose when it come to
spending. They are thus afraid that operating a joint account with such women will
be dangerous to their survival. Some wives also don’t trust their husbands to
guarantee a future for them with regard to ownership of properties acquired jointly.
There are couples that started their family life by operating joint account but what
they experienced later made them opt out of such. These and other related issues
affect marital adjustment of working class couples. Based on these observations
there is need to find out what impact the operation of a joint account by husbands
and wives has on marital adjustment in Yola North Local Government Area of
Adamawa State.

Objectives of the Study

The main objective of the study is to examine impact of joint account on marital
adjustment of working class husband and wives in Yola North Local Government
Area of Adamawa State. The study specifically aims to find out the following:

7
 a. The extent to which maintenance of joint account influence the social
relationship of couples
b. The impact of maintenance of joint account on parentlal care of the child.

Research questions

The study is guided by these research questions:

1. To what extent has the maintenance of joint account influence the social
relationship of couples?
2. What impact does the maintenance of joint account have on parental care of
the child?

8
Hypothesis

Hpi There is no significant mean score difference in the social relationship

between couples who operate joint account and those who do not.

Hp2 There is no significant mean score difference in the parental care of the child
between couples that maintain joint account and those who do not.

Conceptual/Theoretical Framework

The research work will review the following theories: communication theory, the
structural theory, the role theory and financial management theory of marital
adjustment.

The marital communication theory links marital adjustment to inappropriate

communication, the problem arises according to this theory due to lack of clarity or
presence of confusion in the communication network exchange by the couples.

The structural theory proposes that marital pathology is caused where one member
in the dyad is swallowed up by the personality of the other (the problem of
enmeshment).

Role theory model is the framework that proposes that the essential factor in any
marital crises or discontentment is the phenomenon of role conflict which arises
from incompatible role expectations between the two parties in the marriage.

Financial management theory proposes that marriage rests significantly reciprocal

role exchange and when those exchanges breakdown through party’s failure to
fulfill his or her obligation will cause the marriage to be perceived as
unsatisfactory and eventually dissolve.

9
REFERENCES

Anyaanwu, A. and Nwabuisi (2005) Eigth of marriage as a factor in marital

chysfunction among clerical workers journal of Nigeria Nsukka.

Atado, J.C (2005) marriage maintenance Kaduna Rahp Printing Production

Bhatia, H.I (2000) Public finance, Twenty Third Edition, New Delhi; Vikas
Publishing home.

Nwosu, N.C. (2005) Marital conflict Resolution strategies among couples in Enugu
State. Counseling Unpublished M.Ed. Thesis University of Nigeria Nsukka.

Udorji, R.U. (2002) Management of joint Account by husbands and wives in

Onitsha town.

Obi, E. (2004) Issue in educational Administration, Enugu: Empathy international

publisher.

10