IMPROVING LISTENING SKILLS EOR EERRTIVE COMMUNICATION AMONG MARRIED COUPLES

Abstract

Indications from literature and observations from counseling point to the fact that most couples complain about ineffective listening. Often, as partners, we are not willing to create time and make effort to listen to one another. This most times leads to problems in relationships. This paper attempts to examine how listening skills counseling can help married couples improve communication to ascertain or reject its effectiveness.

An experimental approach was adopted for the research study. A sample of 60 subjects were randomly selected and assigned to treatment and control groups, with each group having 30 subjects each. An instrument titled "Couples' Communication Skills Inventory" (CCSI) of listening skills was administered to the subjects. A t-test technique was used to analyze the data collected at a 0.05 level of significance.

The result showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups. It revealed that the experimental group had a moderate level of rating in listening skills. Based on the finding, listening skills counseling was recommended for marriage enrichment programs.