Influence of Sexual Violence on Perceived Anxiety among Married Couples in Makurdi Metropolis

Abstract

Many issues in marital relationships often lead to anxiety problems amongst couples, particularly, sexual violence which includes harassment, sexual exploitation, and assault, etc., are behaviors that call for the attention of mental health professionals. The growing cases of marital unhappiness have drawn the researcher’s attention globally and the existing gaps form the rationale for this study. The cross-sectional survey design was adopted while the stratified random and non-probability sampling techniques were used to sample the population and participants for the study. A total of 251 participants took part in the study, while males were 126(50.2%), females were 125(49.8%) with ages ranging from 20years and above. Two instruments were used to collect data; Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) developed by Beck et al. (1988) and Sexual Violence and Physical Abuse (SVPA) Scale developed by Lesserman et al. (1995). Three hypotheses were tested using Multiple Regression Analysis. The result of hypothesis one revealed a significant influence of gender, age and occupation on perceived anxiety, hypothesis two showed a significant influence of sexual violence on perceived anxiety, while hypothesis three revealed a significant joint influence of gender, age, occupation and sexual violence on perceived anxiety. In conclusion, the three hypotheses were accepted as significantly influencing perceived anxiety amongst married couples in Makurdi Metropolis. Two key recommendations include marital counseling and administering psychological interventions to curb negative behavior.