SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC CORRELATES OF INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE AMONG COUPLES IN ENUGU NORTH SENATORIAL ZONE, ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA.

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the socio-demographic correlates of intimate partner violence among couples in Enugu North Senatorial Zone, Enugu State, Nigeria. The population of the study comprised all he registered married couples in Enugu North senatorial zone from 2011- 2015. 868 respondents made up 434 couples were sued as sample. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire entitled: Intimate Partner Violence Question (IPVQ) five research questions and four hypotheses guided the study. The research questions were answered using person product moment correlation while regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results obtained showed that Nigerian couples are faced with different types of intimate partner violence which are: physical violence, psychological violence and sexual violence; age of the couples and their employment status were the socio-demographic factors that significantly correlate with intimate partner violence among couples and that gender and educational status did not correlate with intimate partner violence significantly. Based on the findings, recommendations for implementation include organization confirming marriages such as families, religious groups, hospitals, courts etc, ensuring that their clients pass through marital counselling with professional marriage counsellors among others.