Trauma Symptoms of Female Victims of Domestic Violence in Rivers State, Nigeria
- ANYIKE, Tari-Ilado Christian1, & CLETUS, Florence Chinyere2
- DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17938876
- UKR Journal of Medicine and Medical Research (UKRJMMR)
Domestic violence is a debilitating public health threat that can traumatize the survivors. This study investigated trauma symptoms of female victims of domestic violence in Rivers State. The cross-sectional survey research design was employed with a population consisting of 15,023. A sample size of 825 was selected using a multi-stage sampling procedure. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire with a reliability index of 0.89. The data collected were analyzed with the aid of the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 23.0 using mean, standard deviation and ANOVA. The result revealed that the trauma symptoms experienced by female victims of domestic accident were fatigue (X ̅ = 2.69), followed by feeling of hopelessness and painful intercourse (X ̅ = 2.67), sweating profusely and difficulty reaching orgasm during sex (X ̅ = 2.66), nightmares (X ̅ = 2.65), anxiety (X ̅ = 2.64), increased heart-beat and headache (X ̅ = 2.62), depression (X ̅ = 2.61), sadness (X ̅ = 2.60), hyper vigilance (X ̅ = 2.59), shame (X ̅ = 2.57), and confusion (X ̅ = 2.55). Trauma symptoms were experienced more among those aged 25-29 years (X ̅ = 2.67±1.27), had higher educational and socio-economic status. The tested hypotheses showed statistically significant difference in Trauma symptoms based on educational status [F(3, 816) = 4.11; p = 0.01]. It was concluded that, female victims of domestic violence in Rivers State are vulnerable to trauma symptoms. It was recommended among others that, the Nigerian Social Welfare Agency should help to reduce trauma symptoms of domestic violence victims through counselling and rehabilitation programmes.

