PHUBBING BEHAVIOUR, AGE AND RELATIONSHIP SATISFACTION AS ANTECEDENTS OF ATTITUDE TOWARDS MARITAL INFIDELITY AMONG FEMALE NURSES IN OWERRI, IMO STATE

Abstract

The study investigated whether phubbing behaviour, age and relationship
satisfaction antecede attitudes towards marital infidelity. Data were collected via a convenient
sampling technique from a sample of 250 Married female Nurses from different private
hospitals in Owerri. Their ages ranged from 18 - 60 years. The participants completed self-
reported measures of the Attitude towards infidelity Scale (ATIS) developed by Wheatley
(2006), the Phubbing behaviour Scale (PS) developed by Karadag et. al., (2015) and the
Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS) developed by Hendricks (1988). The design used was
cross sectional survey design and descriptive statistics and hierarchical multiple regression
were used to analyse the data. The results indicated that only relationship satisfaction
negatively and significantly precedes attitudes towards marital infidelity (β=-.32,t=-
5.181,p<.01). However, phubing behaviour (β=.01, t= -190 p>.005) and age (β=-1.0, t= (-
1.492), p<.005) do not affect attitudes towards marital infidelity. Thus, it is recommended
that partners be sensitized to the need to curb infidelity and strengthen emotional bonds as the
quality of their relationship antecedents, whether one should engage in marital infidelity or
not.