Premarital Preparation Within the Home, School, and Church as Perceived by Adolescents in the Lake Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

<p><em>Problem</em>. In today's society increasing stress and problems face the traditional Judeo-Christian marriage and family. Adolescents are being confronted with these problems as a result of the continuing rate of divorce and internal stress within family relations. The Seventh-day Adventist church has historically emphasized the importance of marriage and the family. However, as the Christian marriage and family face changes in today's society, there is a need for greater awareness of the factors which influence the premarital preparation of adolescents. The purpose of this study was to research adolescents' perceptions of their premarital preparation. The primary hypothesis of this study is that there is a relationship between perceived premarital preparation by SDA adolescents and their perception of how they have been prepared by the home, school, and church. This study utilized descriptive and correlational research. Data utilized in the research were collected from 332 seniors from 10 academies who answered the Premarital Preparation Questionnaire, a Likert-type attitudinal scale. In this ex-post facto study the data were studied by five types of statistical analyses: measures of central tendency, correlation coefficients, factor analysis, chi square, and analysis of variance. The results indicated that in 7 of the 12 subhypotheses the null hypothesis was rejected. The data indicated that adolescents generally perceived they were prepared in 16 premarital preparation topics and that the topics were very important. It was 'idicated that in general their exists a relationship between adolescents' perception of their premarital preparation and how their perception of the contribution by the home, school, and church relates to their preparation. It may be concluded from the data and comments by adolescents in this study that their approach to marriage and family life has been influenced by education, role models, and social environment. These factors and others appear to have influenced their perception of the premarital preparation provided them by the home, school, and church.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Counseling Psychology, Ph.D.

Year

1986

Author dc:creator

• Stevens, Ernest James

Contributors dc:contributor

• Mercedes H. Dyer
• Thesba N. Johnston
• Jerome Thayer

• Christian Denominations and Sects
• Practical Theology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dissertations/716

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.andrews.edu:dissertations-1715