The Effectiveness of Peer Counseling in Helping University Students to Build Marriage Readiness

摘要

The willingness to get married and have a family without supported by sufficient knowledge about marriage and family life can cause problems in the future. Peer counseling is one of the methods expected to prepare marriage readiness for university students. This article explained the rate of marriage readiness for university students; investigated the effectiveness of peer counseling in helping to improve the marriage readiness for university students of State Islamic University (UIN) of Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin (SMH) Banten; also investigated the kind of common issues solved while conducting the process of pre-marriage peer counseling. The method was mixed one (qualitative and quantitative method). The quantitative method applied a questionnaire as the instrument to collect the data regarding the level of students' readiness to get married. While the instrument of the qualitative method was documentation and interview to collect the data of the implementation of peer counseling and kinds of the problem faced by students in their pre-marriage peer counseling. The finding of the research showed that peer counseling was effective in helping to improve the rate of marriage readiness for university students. Peer counseling was proven to be very effective in helping to increase students' marriage readiness mainly for peer counselors who had been mentally ready to get married; 2) there were ten kinds of problems in peer counseling.