Abstract:
In the traditional African society, Marriage was considered a rite of passage. People had high regard for it and therefore had positive perception about it. Divorce and single parenthood were very rare and emergence or social phenomena such as street children was unheard of. This was partly because of the presence or elders who offered marital advise to couples whenever they had problems. Currently, contrary to what used to happen in the past, many people are not enthusiastic to get married and have opted to remain single or get into single parenthood. Even th~se who get married often experience marital problems such as domestic violence, financial strains, communication problems among others which have led to divorce and separation. This study sought to investigate the influence of selected factors on university students' perception of marriage life. The study was carried out among the final year undergraduate degree students Egerton University, Njoro Campus. The final year undergraduate degree students were changed because they were in transition and because of their age, they may have been more concerned about marriage and could have established intimate relationships geared towards marriage. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The targeted population was 5301 undergraduate degree students or whom the accessible population was 764 final year undergraduate degree students. Out of this population. a sample of 254 was selected through stratified random sampling and proportional random sampling. The data was collected using self-scoring questionnaire. The collected data was processed and then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 11.5 for windows. The study outcomes revealed that most or the University students had Positive perception toward marriage life. The study also indicated that mass media, students' education aspiration, religious affiliation, family ot origin as well as domestic violence influenced university students' perception or marriage life. Recommendations of the study are that parents should solve their differences amicably and not engage in fighting as this influences their children's perception of marriage life negatively. It is also recommended that marriage therapists and religious leaders should take advantage of the media in order to enhance their counselling given that mass media affects their clients' perception of marriage life. The media owners and the government should also regulate programmes that might influence attitudes that are destructive to marriage. The study suggests further research in other public or private universities in Kenya on the university students' perception of marriage life.
