Endnotes

2. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Kenya Time Use Survey 2021 (Nairobi: KNBS, 2023). A joint KNBS and UN Women summary reports average unpaid care and domestic work of approximately 4.² hours a day for women and 48 minutes for men, and combined paid and unpaid work of approximately 7.⁹ hours for women and 6.⁸ hours for men. These are population averages, not descriptions of every household.

3. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Central Bank of Kenya and FSD Kenya, 2024 FinAccess Household Survey (Nairobi, 2024). Formal financial access rose to 84.⁸ per cent, but the survey separately measures exclusion, debt, day-to-day financial management and financial health. The distinction is relevant because financial access and visible transactions do not by themselves establish stability.

4. Communications Authority of Kenya, Audience Measurement and Industry Trends Report, October–December 2025 (Nairobi: CA, 2026). The report estimates daily social-media use among 31 per cent of the measured audience, with young adults and urban audiences leading online consumption. It identifies Facebook and WhatsApp as the most widely used platforms, followed by TikTok and YouTube. These data establish reach and use, not effects on relationship quality.

5. Valerie A. Simon and Wyndol Furman, “Interparental Conflict and Adolescents’ Romantic Relationship Conflict,” Journal of Research on Adolescence 20, no. 1 (2010): 188–209, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2009.00635.x. The study examined 183 older adolescents and found that appraisals such as threat and self-blame shaped some associations between observed parental conflict and adolescents’ conflict behaviour. The sample and design do not justify deterministic claims about all children or adults.

6. Horwitz and colleagues’ large review of partner similarity found positive correlations across most traits studied, while later work emphasises several pathways: active partner choice, shared environments, social homogamy and convergence. See Tanya B. Horwitz et al., “Evidence of Correlations Between Human Partners Based on Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of 22 Traits and UK Biobank Analysis of 133 Traits,” Nature Human Behaviour 7 (2023): 1568–1583, and Jennifer Sjaarda and Zoltán Kutalik, “Partner Choice, Confounding and Trait Convergence All Contribute to Phenotypic Partner Similarity,” Nature Human Behaviour 7 (2023): 776–789, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01500-w.

7. Isabel Pike, Sanyu A. Mojola and Caroline W. Kabiru, “Making Sense of Marriage: Gender and the Transition to Adulthood in Nairobi, Kenya,” Journal of Marriage and Family 80, no. 5 (2018): 1298–1313, https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12525. The qualitative study examined how low-income young people in Nairobi understood marriage in relation to work, housing, children, gender and adulthood. Its findings should not be generalised to all Kenyan social classes.

8. Shelley Clark, Caroline W. Kabiru and Rohini Mathur, “Relationship Transitions Among Youth in Urban Kenya,” Journal of Marriage and Family 72, no. 1 (2010): 73–88, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2009.00684.x. See also Beth Maina et al., “Gender Norms About Romantic Relationships and Sexual Experiences Among Very Young Male Adolescents in Korogocho Slum in Kenya,” International Journal of Public Health 65 (2020): 497–506, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01364-9. Both sources concern specific populations and stages of life; they are used here to illustrate socialisation and changing relationship scripts, not to define all Kenyan adults.

9. Caryl E. Rusbult, Eli J. Finkel and Madoka Kumashiro, “The Michelangelo Phenomenon,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 18, no. 6 (2009): 305–309, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01657.x. The model distinguishes affirmation of a partner’s own ideal-self goals from imposing an externally chosen identity.

10. The “what is beautiful is good” stereotype has a long research history. See Karen Dion, Ellen Berscheid and Elaine Walster, “What Is Beautiful Is Good,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 24, no. 3 (1972): 285–290, https://doi.org/10.1037/h0033731. The existence of a halo effect does not imply that attractive people lack positive traits; it concerns the tendency to infer traits before sufficient evidence.

11. Allen W. Barton et al., “Financial Strain, Trajectories of Marital Processes, and African American Newlyweds’ Marital Instability,” Journal of Family Psychology 30, no. 6 (2016): 657–666, https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000190. See also Hannah C. Williamson, Thomas N. Bradbury and Benjamin R. Karney, “Financial Strain and Stressful Events Predict Newlyweds’ Negative Communication Independent of Relationship Satisfaction,” Journal of Family Psychology 27, no. 1 (2013): 65–75, https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031104. These studies show associations and pathways under particular conditions; they do not establish that low income prevents healthy relationships.

12. Margaret Frye and Daniela R. Urbina, “Fearing Such a Lady: University Expansion, Underemployment, and the Hypergamy Ideal in Kampala, Uganda,” Journal of Family Issues 41, no. 8 (2020): 1161–1187, https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X19886895. The study explores tensions between women’s educational expansion, underemployment and expectations that women should marry men of equal or higher status. It is used as regional context rather than direct evidence about Kenya.

13. Tila M. Pronk and Jaap J. A. Denissen, “A Rejection Mind-Set: Choice Overload in Online Dating,” Social Psychological and Personality Science 11, no. 3 (2020): 388–396, https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619866189. Across three studies, acceptance rates generally declined as participants evaluated more profiles, though patterns differed by study and gender. The findings should not be converted into a universal claim that more options always reduce commitment.

14. Caryl E. Rusbult, “Commitment and Satisfaction in Romantic Associations: A Test of the Investment Model,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 16, no. 2 (1980): 172–186, https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(80)90007-4. See also Paul Tran et al., “Commitment in Relationships: An Updated Meta-Analysis of the Investment Model,” Personal Relationships 26, no. 1 (2019): 158–180, https://doi.org/10.1111/pere.12268.

15. Sarafina Métellus, Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel, Audrey Brassard and Marie-Ève Daspe, “Attachment Anxiety and Relationship Satisfaction in the Digital Era: The Contribution of Social Media Jealousy and Electronic Partner Surveillance,” Journal of Marital and Family Therapy 51, no. 4 (2025): e70074, https://doi.org/10.1111/jmft.70074. The study followed 322 young adults over two years and found that social-media jealousy was associated with more surveillance and lower relationship satisfaction one year later. The authors did not conclude that social-media use alone determines relationship outcomes.

16. Justin A. Lavner, Benjamin R. Karney and Thomas N. Bradbury, “Does Couples’ Communication Predict Marital Satisfaction, or Does Marital Satisfaction Predict Communication?” Journal of Marriage and Family 78, no. 3 (2016): 680–694, https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12301. The longitudinal analysis raises doubts about treating communication skill as the single primary cause of satisfaction.

17. Kirsten Stoebenau, Nikita Viswasam, Estelle M. Sidze and Sangeetha Madhavan, “Integrating the In-Laws: Class and Kin Support Within Marriage in Urban Kenya,” Journal of Marriage and Family 88, no. 3 (2026): 777–790, https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.70039. The study is relevant to the continuing role of kin, class and union formalisation in urban Kenyan marriages.