The Impact of Self-Esteem and Religiosity on the Marital Readiness Criteria of College Students

The focus of this exploratory study was to better understand the impact of self-esteem and religiosity on marital readiness criteria of college students. Data was collected from 18-25 year old students at a large, public university in Southern Mississippi. A total of 216 participants completed questionnaires that consisted of demographic information and self-esteem, religiosity, and marital readiness scales. Results indicated that self-esteem and religiosity combined have a statistically significant positive relationship with marital readiness criteria. In addition to the analysis among all of the variables, the independent relationship between each independent variable on marital readiness was examined. The relationship between self-esteem and marital readiness was not statistically significant while the relationship between marital readiness and religiosity was. Results also demonstrated a connection between gender and religiosity, with females having higher religiosity scores than males. There was a further connection between marital readiness criteria and gender, with males having higher criteria scores than females