Emotional Intelligence and Marital Satisfaction of Ministers in the Apostolic Church Nigeria, Uyo Field, Akwa Ibom State

The study examined the extent to which emotional intelligence predicts the marital satisfaction of ministers in the Apostolic Church Nigeria, Uyo Field, Akwa Ibom State. Six research questions and six corresponding null hypotheses were formulated to guide the investigation. A correlational research design was adopted for the study. The population comprised 313 ministers in the Apostolic Church Nigeria, Uyo Field, Akwa Ibom State, out of which a sample of 205 ministers was selected using the purposive sampling technique. Two researcher-developed instruments titled “Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire” (EIQ) and “Marital Satisfaction Scale for Church Ministers” (MSSCM) were employed for data collection. The instruments were subjected to face validation, and their internal consistency reliability was determined, yielding coefficients of 0.76 for the EIQ and 0.73 for the MSSCM. Data collected were analysed using simple linear regression statistic. Findings revealed that self-awareness, and empathy significantly predicted the marital satisfaction of ministers in the Apostolic Church Nigeria, while motivation did not. Based on these findings, conclusions were drawn, and three recommendations were made, one of which is that empathy training should be incorporated into ministerial counselling and leadership development programmes to enhance marital satisfaction of ministers.