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ABSTRACT
This paper explores the related reasons of the effects of marriage while studying,
beginning with a discussion of how key concepts from the word ‘marriage’ and ‘study’ can be
extended to this study. Two research questions are outlined as a means of advancing research
in this study which are what are the effects of marriage while studying in university within
universities’ students and what are the public views towards this kind of marriage. Following
by an overview of research methodology and procedural challenges, the paper concludes by
noting that research devoted to understanding marriages in the context of this study.
Furthermore, the other reasons are also being considered such as poverty, stress, financial
problem and time management problem. A survey was given to 30 students of both genders
who are still single and who are married. Each student completed the questionnaire about this
topic and the results were collected and analysed to accomplish this research.
KEYWORDS: marriage; time management; stress; financial; poverty; study.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Research
Marriage is a legal contract between two individuals who come together to create a
relationship. People marry for many reasons such as legal, social, emotional, economical,
spiritual, and religious which might include arranged marriages, family obligations, and the
legal establishment of a nuclear family unit, the legal protection of children and public
declaration of love. Marriage nowadays may seem like a choice to many students in the
universities nowadays due to some cultural reasons or maturity. Besides that, there are also
those who are married but still want to further their studies to improve their future. Getting
1
married while still studying in university is a big decision that might affect our financial aid
eligibility which is also can contribute to the other problems. Besides that, we will have a hard
time to manage the time between studies and family. However, there are also some positive
effects if universities’ students get married while still studying. So, a research is done to
confirm us whether marriage while still studying in a university is beneficial or not.
1.2 Research Objectives
The followings are the objectives that we have determined to do this research:
1. To know the effects of marriage while studying in university within universities’
students.
2. To know the views of people towards this kind of marriage.
1.3 Research Questions
The followings are the questions that we have prepared to do this research:
1. What are the effects of marriage while studying in university within universities’
students?
2. What are the public views towards this kind of marriage?
1.4 Definition of terms
Marriage is the state of being husband and wife as well as starting a family. According
to Confucius, “Marriage is the union of two different surnames, in friendship and in love, in
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order to continue the prosperity of former ages and to produce those who shall preside at the
sacrifice of heaven and earth”.
Study is the activity of learning something. We study to gain knowledge to achieve
our ambitions and also create a better tomorrow.
Therefore, the term of marriage while study in university is about people who are
married but at the same time they still insist in gaining more knowledge to achieve their
ambitions.
1.5 Organizations of the report
For our class of UHL2332 Semester 1 09/10, we were asked to make an academic
report writing which had taken several steps in order to complete the report according the due
date. For this report, we had it organized as followed. Firstly, we need to choose a topic in
which it contains a problem which needs to be looked into and discussed, find out the
solutions and making conclusion. In order to make a conclusion, many works that need to be
done such as writing research questions, reviewing related literature, deciding on a working
schedule and research tools, collecting data and analysing them, interpreting the data before
concluding.
For the first chapter, it presents the introduction of this research which includes the
background of the proposed report, research objectives as well as research questions, and also
definition of key terms. For the second chapter, it discusses about the literature review which
contains the introduction, benefits, and patterns of writing as well as writing style for
literature review and also points to remember. For this chapter, we need to search for the
3
materials by using http://iportal.ump.edu.my provided by University Malaysia Pahang. For
the next chapter, chapter three, it presents the research methodology which includes the data
collection method and data analysis. There are various methods using for data collection
which are interviews, surveys and observations. For our report, we used interviews and
surveys as our methods in gaining the data. There are two types of survey questions which are
open-ended and close-ended and we used both of these types. Data analysis from the
interviews, we will use a summary sheet to define the percentage or frequency of the results
and as for the questionnaire, we will number each questionnaire for easy reference.
Then, for the chapter four, it presents analysis and discussion which contains data
interpretation and writing style for data analysis. So, we need to describe, summarize, and
compare data that will be collected before present it in forms of graphs, charts or maps.
Finally, for the last chapter, it discusses about writing style for conclusions and
recommendations. For this chapter, we need to summarize the findings and to make it clear,
concise and precise for the readers.
4
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
There are positive and negative effects on marriage while study in a university. For the
positive effects are reducing poverty, reducing stress and helping one’s husband’s earnings.
However, for the negative effects, they are marital conflicts that will increase stress in a
different way. For further details, you can refer the paragraphs below.
Education plays an important role in reducing poverty. This is one of the reasons why
a married person furthered his or her education in order to provide a better life for his or her
family. According to Pandey and Kim (2008), they found that education promises higher
future labour market returns (Becker 1993; Mincer 1979, 1989). It also increases women’s
employment prospects, earnings, health and social. Between 1970 and 2000, annual median
incomes were substantially higher for women with a bachelor’s degree compared to those
with only a high school degree. Dixon and Rettig (1994) concluded that mothers with a
college degree are more likely to find employment and earn above-poverty income after
divorce. They also found that single mothers with a 4-year college degree were nine times
more likely to live above the federal poverty line than those without a high school degree. At
the household level, women who were working and married enjoyed the highest economic
status. There is also evidence that married women’s education predicts their household
headship; that is if the wife is more educated than her husband, she is more likely to be the
head of the household. They also examine about the marriage promotion that underscores the
importance of marriage. According to McLanahan and Sandefur (1996), they found those
children that spend some time in a single-parent family while they growing up will not fare as
well as their counterparts growing up with both parents. These children are more likely to
drop out of high school, have weaker labor force attachments, and are themselves more likely
to give birth and raise children as single parents, compared to children who grow up with both
5
parents. Also, decline in marriage has contributed many social problems including the
increase in child poverty and welfare dependency.
Stress also contributes to the marital conflict and problems among the married couple.
According to Scheidler(2009), being may be unable to meet the ongoing demands of family
responsibilities, household chores, time for marital intimacy, financial obligations, leisure
time, workload and school responsibilities and deadlines will lead to perceived stress among
doctoral students. Besides that, she also found that perceived stress will also lead to
marriage dissatisfaction because there is a feeling that the division of labor within the
marriage and household is uneven. On the other hand, he observes that marital satisfaction
will be positively affected by perceiving support from one’s spouse. However, perceived
stress would have a negative relationship with marital satisfaction. It is because as perceived
stress decreases, marital satisfaction increases. Therefore, spousal support can help to
decrease perceived stress thus increase the marital satisfaction. Moreover, she also indicates
that spousal support resulted in less stress and higher self-esteem for the graduate student.
This shows that spousal support is the most effective way to decrease perceived stress and
increase the marital satisfaction. According to Story and Bradbury (2004), they believe that
there is a relation between stress and marriage. Besides that, evidence indicates that stressful
environments, effects of personality and marital interaction, cannot recognize the effects of
stress in marriage, and major socio-demographic also contribute to this discussion. Most of
couples are working, spending their time outside the home and they need to balance their
work and family life. Getting engaged before married can minimize negative interactions and
maximize positive ones like discuss the partner feels in order to solve interpersonal problem.
Moreover, husbands show more emotional negativity and less positivity during marital
interaction on days of high stress and exhaustion compare to wives.
6
On the other hand, Story and Bradbury (2004) also found that race; education,
occupational stress, and socioeconomic disadvantages also contribute to this problem and may
require different intervention strategies to solve this problem of stress and marital interaction.
There are two ways can be taken to reduce the negative effects of stress on marriage which
are, first, provide couples with information and skills that would enable them to understand
and manage stress and second, design and change environments in case to limit stress
encountered by couples. According to Glynn, Christenfeld and Gerin (1999) and also Norton
et all (1998), they suggests that social support, especially by a spouse, helps to decrease
perceived stress and physical and psychological symptoms from stress. The benefits of social
support have been documented over the last several decades. Spousal support has been noted
to be the most effective, due to the fact that spouses are more likely to share similar stressors.
Julien and Markman (1991) provided evidence in their study that spouses who report higher
levels of support from their spouse are more martially satisfied. While Kerns and Turk (1984)
also concluded that support from a spouse can increase marital satisfaction. Besides, Norton et
all (1998) added that spousal support resulted in less stress and higher self-esteem. For the
graduated student, Brannock et al. (2000) noted findings of lower stress levels for students
with high marital satisfaction, with spousal support being a prime factor for this relationship.
Shackelford (2001) observes that self-esteem can be a solution to the adaptive problem caused
by marital conflict and marital satisfaction .Several studies have found a negative correlation
between men and women’s self-esteem involved in committed romantic relationships.
According to Shackelford (2001), factors that contribute to this thing are wife’s sexual
infidelity, husband’s derogation of wife physical attractiveness and self-esteem will certainly
relate with global, sexual, and emotional satisfaction with the marriage. Besides that, he found
that self-esteem negatively relates with divorce as a consequence of one’s own infidelity, and
physical attractiveness positively relate with men’s and women’s physical self-esteem.
7
Moreover, men’s global, sexual, and emotional satisfaction positively correlated with their
global, physical, and social self-esteem, but was unrelated to their intellectual self-esteem
compared to women who positively correlated across all four esteem dimensions. This shows
that self-esteem may both track spousal cost-infliction and self-perceived mate value.
According to Willen-berg and Elizabeth (1982), they suggest that role conflicts and marital
adjustment may increase when women combine the student role with the spouse role as the
numbers of married women that are continuing their education are increased. The major
findings provided support for the leading hypotheses. Moreover, the findings revealed that a
majority of the women surveyed reported relatively low levels of stress and moderate levels
of role conflicts. The findings suggest that the selected variables associated with the spouse
can be important moderators in married women's attempts to integrate the student and the
spouse roles. It is very important for reevaluation of attitudes and counseling approaches
toward the married student.
According to Jepsen (2005), the higher the wife’s education, the more she is able to
help her husband to obtain certain skills. Moreover, an educated wife can offer advice and
information to her husband as a substitute of her husband’s education. Besides that, she also
indicates that the more educated a woman; she would able to become a better wife, mother
and homemaker. This is because education can teach students to able to solve problems, use
good judgements and also reason properly in all of life’s circumstances. With regard to the
investment of wives in their husbands’ productivity, he specifies that it explains the earnings
of married men. This shows that a wife’s education can positively affect her husband’s
earning. However, due to the rising educational levels and dramatic increases of married
women in the labour-force participation, the coefficient between a wife’s education and her
husband’s earnings remains positive from 1960 to 2000 but the size of coefficient decreases.
8
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Settings
The research will be conducted at University Malaysia Pahang. 30 participants will be
chosen randomly. Targeted participants include student who are married, students who are
still single and staff who are married and still continuing their studies.
3.2 Data Collection
Primary source data are collected through methods such as questionnaire and
interviews. Questionnaires will be given to 30 randomly chosen participants in University
Malaysia Pahang. Those questionnaires are gathered and data are collected before being
analysed. Besides that, interview will be conducted face to face with some of the 30
participants.
3.3 Data Analysis
Data collected are analysed and information is gathered before presenting them using
common statistical analysis. A summary sheet is used during the interview to collect data so
that they can be analysed and can be presented in frequency or percentage. As for
questionnaire, the questions are numbered based on the choices and the marks of the
respondents are calculated. The data gathered from the questionnaires will then presented in
frequency or percentage.
9
CHAPTER IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Status Gender Time Management Problem
Financial Problem
Importance of Education
Stress Reduction
MarriedMale 87.5% 50.0% 75.0% 50.0%
Female 25.0% 50.0% 50.0% 100.0%
UnmarriedMale 43.7% 87.5% 43.7% 100.0%
Female 53.1% 75.0% 78.1% 75.0%
Public Views on The Effects of Marriage While Studying
0.0%
20.0%
40.0%
60.0%
80.0%
100.0%
120.0%
TimeManagement
Problem
FinancialProblem
Importance ofEducation
StressReduction
Effects
Perc
enta
ge Married Male
Married Female
Unmarried Male
Unmarried Female
10
Table 2: Public Views on the Effects of Marriage While Studying
Figure 1: Public Views on the Effects of Marriage While Studying
The graph illustrates the public views on the effects of marriage while studying in
university within universities’ students. According to the graph, there are married and
unmarried students who had given their responses upon this topic. These are the results based
on the responses of married students based on their gender. About 87.5% male and 25.0%
female have chosen that time management problem is the effect of marriage while studying.
Moreover, about 50.0% of both genders think that financial problem is the effect of this kind
of marriage. Another 75.0% male and 50.0% female think that the education is important and
about 50.0% male and 100.0% female think that marriage while studying can reduce stress.
As for the results based on unmarried students of different gender, about 43.7% male and
53.1% female have chosen time management problem as the effect of marriage while
studying and about 87.5% male and 75.0% female have chosen financial problem.
Furthermore, another 43.7% male and 78.1% female think that education is important and
100.0% male and 75.0% female think that this kind of marriage can reduce stress.
Married male students tend to have problem in managing their time compared to
married female because they have to balance their time between family and studies. As for
unmarried students, female students think that they will have problem in managing their time
when they are married compared to male students. This is because they need to learn how to
manage their time between family and their studies such as finishing their assignments on
time, taking care of their children and also doing housework. According to Story and
Bradbury (2004), Most of couples are working, spending their time outside the home and they
need to balance their work and family life.
As for financial problem, married students of both gender agreed that it affects their
marriage and studies. This is because there are some of them who are not working yet and do
not have income to support their families and to pay for their university’s fee. Besides that,
11
they also do not have enough money to support their own living if they do not have income.
As for the unmarried students, male students think that they will have financial problem if
they are married while studying compared to female students. Since male have more
responsibility towards their own family compared to female such as supporting their own
family so they find that financial usage is more essential.
In addition, more married male students think that education is important compared to
married female students. This is because they think that education plays an important role in
reducing poverty especially married male who take more responsibility to support their
family. Moreover, according to Pandey & Kim (2008), a married person furthered his or her
education in order to provide a better life for his or her family. Furthermore, Becker (2003)
and Mincer (1979, 1989) found that education promises higher future labour market returns.
As for unmarried students, more female students think that education is important compared
to male students. This is because female nowadays are more independent and they will work
to help their husbands to support the family. Similarly, Dixon and Rettig (1994) concluded
that mothers with a college degree are more likely to find employment and earn above-
poverty income after divorce. They also found that single mothers with a 4-year college
degree were nine times more likely to live above the federal poverty line than those without a
high school degree. At the household level, women who were working and married enjoyed
the highest economic status. There is also evidence that married women’s education predicts
their household headship; that is if the wife is more educated than her husband, she is more
likely to be the head of the household.
Moreover, married female students think that marriage while studying can reduce
stress compared to married male students. This is because encouragement from family
especially spouse can make a bigger impact on the female rather than the male. Scheidler
12
(2009) observes that marital satisfaction will be positively affected by perceiving support
from one’s spouse. Therefore, spousal support can help to decrease perceived stress thus
increase the marital satisfaction. Besides, she also indicates that spousal support resulted in
less stress and higher self-esteem for the graduate student. On the other hand, according to
Story and Bradbury (2004), they believe that husbands showed more emotional negativity and
less positivity during marital interaction on days of high stress and exhaustion compare to
wives. As for unmarried students, male students think that marriage while studying can reduce
stress compared to female students. This is because the male students tend to think that
support from a spouse can increase marital satisfaction (Kerns and Turk, 1984). Besides that,
Norton et all (1998) added that spousal support resulted in less stress and higher self-esteem.
For the graduated student, Brannock et al. (2000) noted findings of lower stress levels for
students with high marital satisfaction, with spousal support being a prime factor for this
relationship. Shackelford (2001) observes that self-esteem can be a solution to the adaptive
problem caused by marital conflict and marital satisfaction .Several studies have found a
negative correlation between men and women’s self-esteem involved in committed romantic
relationships.
In a nutshell, it can be concluded that everybody has different views on the effects of
marriage while studying in universities. This is because everyone has their own ways of
handling this kind of situation. This is why the results that we obtained are not persistent
enough.
13
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION
5.1) Summary of the Results
From our research, we can see that married students have more problems in managing
their time between studies and family compared to unmarried students who think that they
will have more problems in financial terms. This happens because married students have to
work, take care of their family and at the same time they still need to study. Moreover,
majority of the married students do not really face any financial problem because some
married students are working, therefore they will not tend to worry about financial problems.
But as for unmarried students, they still have not become as mature as those married students
are; therefore they still tend to think that they do not have the responsibility to support a
family. So, they tend to worry about the problem that if they get married and have a family of
theirs but yet they still cannot really manage their financial usage.
Furthermore, we also can see that both married and unmarried students agreed that
education is very important to them because it can help to reduce poverty. However, more
married male students and unmarried female students take importance of education compared
to married female students and unmarried male students. This is because married male
students think that they need to be responsible in supporting their own family rather than their
wives. As for unmarried female students, they take importance of education rather than
unmarried male students because nowadays modern women are more ambitious and education
is one of the ways to provide a higher future labour market returns which can give them a
better future.
In addition, we can see that married students and unmarried students of both genders
agreed that marriage can reduce stress especially study stress. This is because research has
14
proven that spousal support can reduce stress and increase marital satisfactions to those who
are married.
5.2) Limitations of the study
This study is successfully finished but there are a few limitations that caused our
results to be not persistent. The followings are the limitations of our study:
1) The research was held at only one place which is around Universiti Malaysia Pahang
compound causing our results to be too focus on the views of students who are either
married or unmarried at that area only.
2) The amount of unmarried students who took the survey about marriage while studying
in a university are more than married students. This causes the results of our research
to be inaccurate.
5.3) Suggestions for further study based on the research outcome
1) The research should be done not only at Universiti Malaysia Pahang but also at other
places such as other universities so that we can observe the overall views of the public
on the research about marriage while studying in university. Besides that, other
universities become one of the chosen places because majority of universities’
students are married especially those who are having their masters or doctor PHD
thus we can gather more opinions for our research from those students.
15
2) The amount of married students and unmarried students who are going to take the
survey based on the research should be adjusted to a fixed value so that the results will
be accurate.
5.4) Conclusion Remarks
Marriage while still studying is a common thing that will happen among people from
all over the world nowadays. From our findings, we found that there are several major effects
that affect married students such as time management problems, financial problems, the
importance of education and stress reduction. Furthermore, these effects not only affect
people positively but also negatively. Moreover, these effects differ on different person
because it depends on whether one person can manage or fail to manage them properly.
Besides that, there are positive and negative views on this issue due to the effects that come
about from our research and the journals that we have analysed.
16
REFERENCES
Debs. & Diane K. (1982). Correlated of marital satisfaction in married college students. 119.
University of Oregon.
Dixon, C. S., & Rettig, K. D. (1994). An examination of income adequacy for single
women two years after divorce. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 22(1–2), 55–71.
Jepsen, L.K. (2005). The relationship between wife’s education and husband’s earnings:
evidence from 1960 to 2000. Review of Economics of the Household, 3(2), 197-214.
McLanahan, S. S., & Sandefur, G. D. (1996). Growing up with a single parent: What hurts
what helps. Boston: Harvard University Press.
Pandey, S., Zhan, M. & Kim, Y.M. (2006). Bachelor's degree for women with children:A
promising pathway to poverty reduction. Equal Opportunities International, 25(7),
488-505.
Pandey, S. & Kim, J.H. (2008). Path to Poverty Alleviation: Marriage or Postsecondary
Education? Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 29(1), 166-184.
Pandey, S., & Zhan, M. (2007). Postsecondary education, marital status, and economic well-
being of women with children. Social Development Issues, 29(1), 1–26.
17
Scheidler, J.A. (2008). Effects of perceived stress and perceived social support on marital
satisfaction in doctoral students . PhD Thesis. Walden University.
Shackelford, T.K. (2001). Self-esteem in Marriage. Personality and Individual
Differences,30, 371-390.
Story, L.B., & Bradbury, T.N. (2004). Understanding marriage and stress: Essential questions
and challenges. Clinical Psychology Review, 23, 1139–1162.
Topham, G.L., Larson, J.H., Holman, T.B. (2005). Family-of-Origin Predictors of Hostile
Conflict in Early Marriage. Contemporary Family Therapy, 27 (1), 101-121.
Willen , B. & Elizabeth. (1982). The role conflicts of married women students: effects upon
psychological stress and marital adjustment and influence of husband’s role help. 404.
Cornell University.
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APPENDICES
Questionnaire
Please tick (/) the answer.
1. Gender: Male / Female
2. Are you married? Yes / No
3a. If Yes, please answer following questions: (You may choose more than one answer)
i) Can you manage your time easily between family and studies? Yes / No
If No, please choose the reasons below:
[ ] Too busy with assignments.
[ ] Too busy with family especially children.
[ ] Too busy with housework.
[ ] Others, please specify:
ii) Can you finish your assignments on time? Yes/ No
iii) Do you have any financial problem while studying? Yes / No
If Yes, please choose the reasons below:
[ ] Husband not working.
[ ] Need to raise children.
19
[ ] Need to pay university fees.
[ ] Others, please specify:
iv) Are there any improvements in your results after marriage? Yes / Neutral / No
If Yes, please choose the reasons below:
[ ] Encouragement from spouse.
[ ] Desire to provide a better life to your family by studying hard.
[ ] Others, please specify:
3b. If No, please answer following questions: (You may choose more than one answer)
i) Assume that you are married; do you think you can you manage your time easily between
family and studies? Yes / No
If No, please choose the reasons below:
[ ] Too busy with assignments.
[ ] Too busy with family especially children.
[ ] Too busy with housework.
[ ] Others, please specify:
ii) Assume that you are married; can you finish your assignments on time? Yes/ No
iii) Assume that you are married; you will have any financial problem while studying? Yes /
No
20
If Yes, please choose the reasons below:
[ ] Husband not working.
[ ] Need to raise children.
[ ] Need to pay university fees.
[ ] Others, please specify:
4) Do you think that furthering your education in University; can help to prevent poverty?
Yes / Neutral / No
5) Do you think that encouragement from family especially spouse can reduce stress from
studies and work? Yes / Neutral / No
6) Do you think that the highest the wife’s education is, the more likely that she can
contribute to the family’s financial growth? Yes / No
21
22
Table 1: Summary Sheet
Status Gender Time Management Problem
Financial Problem
Importance of Education
Stress Reduction
Married Male 87.5% 50.0% 75.0% 50.0%
Female 25.0% 50.0% 50.0% 100.0%
Unmarrie
dMale 43.7% 87.5% 43.7% 100.0%
Female 53.1% 75.0% 78.1% 75.0%
Public Views on The Effects of Marriage While Studying
0.0%
20.0%
40.0%
60.0%
80.0%
100.0%
120.0%
Time ManagementProblem
Financial Problem Importance ofEducation
Stress Reduction
Effects
Perc
enta
ge
Married Male
Married Female
Unmarried Male
Unmarried Female
23
Figure 1: Public Views on the Effects of Marriage While Studying
Table 2: Public Views on the Effects of Marriage While Studying
