Patterns of Domestic Violence as Expressed By Married People in Ilorin Metropolis Nigeria: Implications for Marital and Health Counsellors

Abstract

Domestic violence is taking a different dimension in various societies. This study  appraised the patterns of (and brief examination of the causes of) domestic violence as expressed by married people in Ilorin metropolis. Variables of age  gender, religion and socio-economic status were considered. The descriptive research design was adopted for this study. Simple Random Sampling Technique   was used to select 200 respondents for the study. The instrument for the study was a reseacher-developed questionnaire entitled " Patterns of Domestic Violence Questionnaire"(PDVQ). The instrument was validated by five experts in the Department of Counsellor Education, University of Ilorin, Nigeria. The reliability of the instrument was established using the test-retest method and a coefficient of 0.59 was obtained. The null hypothesis formulated for the study was analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and t-test at 0.05 level of significance. It was observed that poor sexual relationship, poverty, poor conflict resolution skill, lack of respect for other spouses’ personality, infidelity are the causes of domestic violence. The result however, revealed that denying one's spouse access to money and other basic resources at home, deliberately hitting him/her, deliberately doing something to make him/her feel diminished or embarrassed among others are the patterns of domestic violence. There were significant differences in the patterns of domestic violence as expressed by married people in Ilorin metropolis on the bases of gender and religion. In view of the findings, it was recommended that marriage and health counsellors should educate married people on the actions/inactions which constitute patterns of domestic violence. They should also encourage couples who are experiencing one form of domestic violence or the other to seek help with couensellors so that appropriate measures could be recommended.