Menopausal Anxiety, Economic Hardship and Marital Decision among Postgraduate Female Students of Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria

The research sought the relationship among the various degrees of economic hardship and menopausal anxiety and the marital decision of the female postgraduate students of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was used in which the quantitative approach informed the qualitative approach. Measures such as Economic Hardship Scale (EHS), Greene Climacteric Scale (GCS), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GADA) and Marital Decision Scale (MDS) were used. Interview guide and recorder was used to collect qualitative data for the present study. Systematic sampling technique was used to select a sample of 294 unmarried female students aged 29-45. The result of the study showed that there was no statistically significant relationship between economic hardship (F(1, 293) = 0.26, p> .05), menopausal anxiety (F(1, 293) = 0.87, p>.05) and marital decision. In contrast, qualitative data indicated that marital decision was influenced by economic hardship and menopausal anxiety in varying degree among respondents. Considering discrepancies between qualitative and quantitative data further made the study explore the varying cluster or degree of menopausal anxiety to economic anxiety among respondents. However, cluster-robust linear regression showed that these cluster memberships do not have a significant influence on marital decision (f(3, 290) = 260.14, p < 0.05). The qualitative data showed that respondents with high economic hardship and high levels of menopausal anxiety had their marital decision influenced as opposed respondents with low level of economic hardship and menopausal anxiety. Respondents with either low economic hardship and high menopausal or vice versal had mixed expression. The study concluded that economic hardship and menopausal anxiety do not statistically predict marital decisions, but subjectively had impact on marital decision on individual with high level of economic hardship and high menopausal anxiety