Attitudes and Reality Regarding Domestic Violence in Nigeria
A recent issue of the International Quarterly of Community Health Education (Volume 25) presents the results of a cross sectional study designed to determine how prevalent intimate partner violence was among women of child-bearing age in a migrant community in southwest Nigeria.The women in the study ranged in age from 15 to 49 years and structured questionnaires were given in the local language to learn about attitudes toward domestic violence in seven hypothetical situations as well as their personal experiences with violence. Of the women surveyed, 87% reported having experienced intimate partner violence at some point in their lives while 20% reported having experienced it in the preceding 12 months. In examining attitudes towards intimate partner violence, 79.5% of the survey respondents believed that wife beating was justified in at least one of the seven hypothetical situations that were presented. Respondents who were not living with a male partner were more likely than their counterparts who were married or cohabiting to accept intimate partner violence (p = 0.03).The authors conclude that there is a critical need for health education programming to change existing cultural attitudes towards domestic violence.
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