Psychosocial Predictors of the Changing Role of Husbands as Breadwinners in a Depressed Economy in Ibadan Metropolis, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Changing roles of husbands as breadwinners among couples, particularly in a poor economy, has been a source of concern for most Nigerian families, resulting in many homes being broken (divorced and separated) and even children begging for alms on the streets. Despite the extensive literature on the effects of marital conflicts, parenting styles, and economic constraints on marital stability, few studies on how these factors interact to affect husbands' evolving status as breadwinners. This study, therefore, examined the psychological predictors (marital disagreement, parenting style and economic challenge) of the changing role of husbands as breadwinners in a depressed economy in the Ibadan metropolis of Oyo State, Nigeria. Marital communication and structural theories provided the framework, while the descriptive survey design was adopted. Three Local Government Areas (LGA) – Ibadan South-west, Ibadan North-west, and Ibadan North – were selected out of the nine LGA using stratified random sampling. Three hundred participants from (3 Churches 213, 2 Markets 81, and 1 School 6) were carefully chosen through a convenience sampling technique. The instruments used were changing role r = .79, marital disagreement r = .90, parenting style r = .89 scales. Data were analysed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression Analysis at a 0.05 level of significance. The finding revealed that there were significant positive relationships between marital disagreement r = .487, p < 0.05, and economic challenge r = .249, p < 0.05 on changing roles while there was no relationship between parenting style r = -.089, p > 0.05 on changing roles. The three independent variables jointly accounted for 31.1% variance in predicting change in roles of the husband as breadwinner. The independent variables made a positive relative contribution to change in role in the following order: marital disagreement (β = -0.117, t = -2.407, p < 0.05, which had a relative contribution to changing role of husbands from breadwinner among couples in Ibadan metropolis. Specific roles and responsibilities should not be overemphasised among couples, rather the emphasis should be on improvements, achievements, and successes recorded together as husbands and wives, and not as individual people. This will reduce the increasing attitude toward self-oriented goals instead of “the family achievements.”