Developing and Implementing a Domestic Violence Intervention Strategy in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Problem. Increasingly Seventh-day Adventist church families in the Port Harcourt area of Rivers Conference are experiencing domestic violence. During ministerial meetings, pastors express their growing frustrations and concerns about family quarrels which sometime result into physical attacks and such attacks then escalate beyond common understanding. Method. This exploratory study utilized a survey questionnaire administered to 377 participants, ages 18 years and above, attending Seventh-day Adventist churches in PortHarcourt, Nigeria. The instrument for this research was adapted from the Conflict Tactics Scale (Straus, 1979) and the National Violence Against Women Survey (NAVAW) (Tjaden & Thonnes, 2000). The CTS is a 39-item scale which I adapted to a 28-item scale instrument in order to measure intimate partner victimization in my target population. Utilizing a Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), I converted the raw data into a form useful for analysis and displayed the results in simple percentages. Results. The results of this study highlight six broad categories of abusive behavior that are: physical, sexual, emotional, isolating, surveillance, and controlling behavior. Controlling and demeaning behavior was the most frequently reported form of abuse in this population. Conclusions. Controlling and demeaning behavior, which increases the likelihood of physical and sexual abuse (Antai, 2011; Johnson, 2006; Stark, 2007), was the most frequently reported form of victimization experienced among the participants of this study. Findings emphasize the need for pastoral care and the need for professional training on abuse prevention for the clergy and laity