DETERMINANTS AND PERCEIVED PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ON CHILDREN OF SECONDARY SCHOOL IN OWO LOCAL GOVERNMENT

ABSTRACT The family is the most critical institution in our society. Family's internal dynamics can have both positive and negative effects on the further development of the child. In modern society, there is a perception that violence occurs only in socially disadvantaged families. However, research shows that domestic violence occurs in all sectors of society, regardless of cultural, religious, social, legal, and economic aspects. The study was conducted to assess determinants and perceived psychological effects of domestic violence on children of secondary schools in Owo local government. A descriptive research design was adopted, simple random sampling technique was used to select eligible respondents and analysis was done with SPSS version 23 using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings from the study majority of the respondents (79.3%) had high level of knowledge while 66 (20.7) had low level of knowledge of domestic violence. The determinants of domestic violence identified in this study are disobedience to partner causes (64.6%), talking back to partner (58.9%) refusing to have sex with partner (35.1%) not serving meals on time usually (91.8%), alcohol consumption (89.7%), going out without a partner’s permission (33.5%), agreed unresolved quarrels are a determinant of domestic violence (63.7%), financial challenges and unemployment (91.2%), if one partner is younger than the other (42%) and higher education level or financial strength of the female partner (39.5%). Furthermore, findings of this study revealed physical injury to the children, fear of marriage, bullying in school and low academic grade as some of the effects of domestic violence on children. The result of the hypotheses revealed a significant relationship between age(df =6, p