Patterns of Domestic Violence among Married Adults in Ilorin Metropolis, Nigeria: Implication for Counselling

Domestic violence is a social menace which poses a lot of threats to the well being of women especially married adults. The rate at which cases of domestic violence is increasing in Nigerian society can be attributed to the traditional beliefs and norms that has made women a subject of violence and domination in marriage. Most times, women are sexually assaulted, emotionally abused and physically violated. This study examines patterns of domestic violence among married adults in Ilorin metropolis, Nigeria and its implication for counselling. Descriptive survey research procedure was adopted for the study. The purposive sampling and simple random sampling techniques were used to draw a sample of 300 married adults in Ilorin Metropolis. The main research instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire tagged “Patterns of Domestic Violence Questionnaire (PADVQ). The instrument was subjected to test re-test reliability technique and a coefficient of 0.68 was obtained. Three research questions were raised and two research hypotheses were tested in the study at 0.05 level of significance. Data collected were analysed using percentages, t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Results revealed that the common patterns of domestic violence as perceived by married adults in Ilorin Metropolis are verbal abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, and spiritual abuse among others. The findings also indicated significant differences in the patterns of domestic violence as perceived by respondents on the bases of educational background and length of years in marriage. The implications of this finding included the fact that marriages may be prone to instability if couples are not sensitized on the need to have change in their value for human dignity and worth, undue expectations in marriage especially from women could also impact negatively on family cohesion. Finally, the findings of this study calls for adequate enlightenment and intervention programmes to be facilitated by marriage counsellors to counsel and campaign against domestic violence. The study also stresses the need for counsellors to provide advocacy services, training in communication skills, organization of family life counselling, support and focused groups to rehabilitate the victims and perpetrators of domestic violence in Ilorin metropolis