Home      Login

Abstract: 

This study assesses the prevalence, predisposing factors, and coping strategies of intimate partner violence (IPV) among married women in Iwo Local Government Area of Osun State, South West, Nigeria. An interviewer-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from 334 currently married women in a cross-sectional survey, while four different focus group discussions were held among 10 participants with the same sociodemographic characteristics from each group. Uni-variate and bi-variate analyses were conducted, using SPSS version 17. The prevalence of intimate partner violence in the study population was 71.3% (this included everyone who had ever experienced any form of abuse). The most common form of violence was emotional violence, reported by 71.3% of the respondents, followed by economic violence (37.4%), and physical violence (36.5%), respectively. Factors reported to be responsible for the condition among the respondents included lack of money, husband’s lack of satisfaction with job/problems at workplace, and attitudinal problem in the husband. The most common coping strategy was tolerance, being reported by 55% of the respondents. Others included: resigning to fate (28.6%); pleading with the partner (23.5%); retaliation (23.1%); running out of the house until calm is restored (18.9%); and seeking help from the family members or outsiders (18.1%).

Keywords: World Health Organization, Socio-Demographic Variables, workplace problems, Sexual Abuse, culture of silence

Affiliations:  1: Osun State University; 2: Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Complex.