Abstract

The study investigated prevalence of Spousal Abuse among Married Persons in South-East Nigeria: Implications for Counselling. Three research questions were formulated to guide the study. The research design adopted for the study was Ex-post Facto. The instrument used to collect data for the research was the “Prevalence of Spousal Abuse Among Married Persons Questionnaire” (POSAAMPQ). Content and facial validity of the instrument were established through expert judgement. The instrument has a reliability coefficient of 0.85 using test re-test method. The investigator used 3 research Assistants to administer 230 copies of the questionnaire on 230 respondents married persons in the 3 states where the investigation was conducted. The data collected from the field work were collated and standard deviation and mean score analysis were carried out for the 15 items in order to answer the 3 research questions raised in the study. The benchmark of 2.50 was chosen for either agreeing or disagreeing with each of the 15 items. The study revealed that there was prevalence of economic abuse among the married persons, there was no prevalence of physical abuse among the married persons. Finally, the investigation indicated that there was prevalence of verbal abuse among the married persons. Some of the recommendations include: Spouses should develop mutual respect for themselves and thus refrain from taking their partners’ money without permission, couples should have a thorough understanding of their partners so as to avoid issues that may trigger off anger and thereby prevent wanton destruction of properties.

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