ATTENDING TO WORDS SKILLS IMPROVES MARRIED COUPLES INTERACTION: COUNSELLING IMPLICATION.

Abstract

The family, which is the nucleus of society, often finds itself in a war of words with its members. Unguided statements, gossiping, backbiting, nagging, and harmful words have ruined relationships, people, families, and societies. This occurs as a result of inappropriate use of words and lack of knowledge about the power of words. The consequences are ineffective attention to words when expressing wants, needs, and feelings. Based on this observation, this research study ventured to use attending to words skills counselling to improve married couples' interaction, to ascertain or reject its effectiveness. A total of 30 respondents were randomly sampled and made to participate in the study from a population of 275 diploma students in the Institute of Education, A.B.U., Zaria, during the academic session of 2009/2010. A questionnaire titled "Couples Communication Skills Section on Attending to Words Skills" was administered to the respondents. The responses were on a four-point Likert scale of strongly agreed (4), agreed (3), disagreed (2), and strongly disagreed (1). The data collected was statistically analyzed using a t-test to determine the effectiveness or otherwise of attending to words skills among married couples. The findings of the study indicated that both male and female respondents improved the level of responsiveness in their interaction. The result showed that there is no significant difference between male and female respondents in the level of responsiveness/interaction. Based on these findings, counselling implications are drawn for the use of attending to words skills to enhance interaction within and outside the family.