Intimate Partner Violence and its Effects on Children in Haske Settlement of Jos, North Central Nigeria

Abstract

Intimate partner violence has become a global threat to women’s health and this can negatively impact on children’s health and wellbeing. This study aims to explore the views of married couples about intimate-partner violence and its effects on children in Haske Settlement of Jos, North Central Nigeria. The study adopted exploratory qualitative research and the target population included married couples living within the Haske Settlement and data collection process employed focus group discussion methods with thematic analysis. The themes and the sub themes that emerged from the coding analysis were: i) occurrence of intimate partner violence; reflecting incessant violence among young married couples; ii) factors of misunderstanding and lack of patience among the couples; iii) effects of violence among the couples; reflecting default growth among the children and faulty character formation, deviant behavior and sustained alcoholism, poor performance at school, altered psychological, physical and spiritual wellbeing and lifestyle of divorce and separation later in life; iv) possible solutions of prayers, mutual understanding, counselling and mingling with others with enhanced relationships were identified as cushioning intimate partner violence among the couples. The study highlighted that young married couples were more likely to experience intimate partner violence, and the factors of misunderstanding and lack of patience were usually responsible for causation and the effects on children reflected default growth and faulty character formation, poor performance at school, retarded psychological, physical and emotional wellbeing. Possible solutions of prayer, mutual understanding, counselling and enhanced relationships will cushion the effects of intimate partner violence.