Assessment And Management Of Commitment And Conflict Experienced By Educated Stay-At-Home Mothers In Lagos State

ABSTRACT

The study undertook an assessment and management of commitment and conflict experienced by educated stay-at-home mothers in Lagos state, Nigeria. It is pertinent to note that conflict refers to low self-esteem, lack of effective family relationship, loss in terms of identity and financial independence. A quasi-experimental pre-test, post-test, control group design was adopted for the study. The initial sample consisted of 150 educated mothers comprising 75 working mothers and 75 stay-at-home mothers drawn from Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) meetings of 2 selected Private Nursery and Primary schools in Ikeja, Ibeju-Lekki and Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Areas of Lagos State. The final sample for the experiment consisted of 30 educated stay-at-home mothers. Eight research hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Also, five major instruments were used to generate data for the study namely: 1. Personal Data Questionnaire (PDQ), 2. Family Commitment Questionnaire (FCQ), 3. Maternal Conflict Questionnaire (MCQ), 4. Index of Self-esteem (ISE), 5. Index of Family Relations (IFR). Data generated were analyzed using descriptive and protected t-test comparison, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Results from the analysis of data indicated that six out of the eight null hypotheses tested were rejected while two were accepted. The findings revealed that Reality Therapy and Transactional Analysis Therapy went a long way in enhancing psychosocial conflicts of educated stay-at-home mothers although Reality Therapy was more efficacious. The study has shown that there is no significant difference in family relationships experienced by educated stay-at-home mothers exposed to reality therapy, transactional analysis treatment and the control group. The findings show that stay-at-home mothers with high family commitment significantly have lower maternal conflict than those with low family commitment. It has also shown that educated working mothers significantly exhibited higher self-esteem than their nonworking counterparts. The findings show that ages of children significantly influence level of maternal conflict experienced by educated stay-at-home mothers. These findings were situated within the existing body of knowledge and their implications for counselling education were discussed.