Determinants of perception of cohabitation among Christians in Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Marriage is seen as a sacred institution among the Yoruba speaking people of Nigeria. It is therefore alarming to note that cohabitation which was a foreign phenomenon is gaining ground in Nigeria. Therefore, this research work was carried out to examine the perception of cohabitation among Christians in Ilishan-Remo, Ogun state. Ilishan-Remo, being a community with many Christian Churches, was a good ground for this research work. Four Christian Churches – two Orthodox (Seventh-day Adventist and Methodist) and two Pentecostal (Redeem Christian Church and Winner Chapel)– were selected through multi-stage sampling technique. In the first stage, the Churches in Ilishan-Remo were stratified into Orthodox and Pentecostal, in the second stage four churches as mentioned above were purposively selected from the existing denominations. Out of these, 200 subjects were conveniently selected from the four churches (50 respondents from each Church). Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics.Analysis of the data gathered revealed that cohabitation was viewed by the majority of the respondents as a modern day phenomenon. They however perceived that cohabitation is adopted by a lot of people due to many factors which include peer pressure, exposure to explicit contents on the internet and television, poor economy and use of drugs. The study observed that Christian religious affiliation is a major deterrent to the practice of cohabitation. The study concluded that most Christians in Ilishan Remo would not cohabit even if given the opportunity. This is probably because of their religious affiliation. Recommendations were made and further researches in the area of rate of cohabitation among youths and other religious sects in Nigeria were suggested.