Cultural Reactions to Abusive Marriages and Relationships in Nigeria: Implications for Counselling and Lifelong Education.

Abstract

This study highlighted the cultural reactions of women in abusive marriages and relationships. Reasons given by participants for remaining in, or returning to the same such situations after a short break were examined. The qualitative research design was employed for the study using a purposeful sampling of ten participants to enable researchers to focus on the key concept that is being explored in the study. The four research questions raised in the study tried to find out if love, financial/economic reasons, religious/societal/family pressure would be reasons for women to remain or return to abusive marriages and relationships. Individual, face-to-face, in-depth and more structured interviews were conducted. Analysis of data using the thematic description revealed that love and religion were not strong reasons given by participants for remaining in or returning to abusive marriages and relationships. It was also discovered that nine of the ten participants never had the opportunity to seek professional counselling. Only one of the participants had a semblance of professional intervention which was short-lived. Recommendations include the need to create more awareness on the importance of continuous professional marital counselling and lifelong education. This should be rendered by professionals in all settings for those who are married and particularly for adults who are moving from independent living to marriages and relationships.