Correlates and Consequences of Dating Violence in Adolescent Relationships in Nigeria

This paper examined the causes and effects of dating violence in adolescent relationships. Two thousand three hundred and eighty six (2,386) adolescents consisting of nine hundred and eighty-eight (988) males and one thousand three hundred and ninety-eight (1,398) females between the ages of sixteen (16) and nineteen (19) drawn from five (5) tertiary institutions in Rivers State using the convenient sampling procedure participated in the study. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire, and analysed using frequencies and percentages. The study discovered psychological, verbal, physical and electronic attacks as the most common forms of dating violence that characterize adolescent relationships, while intrapersonal (such as low self-esteem, poor anger management, deception and secretiveness, jealousy, domineering/controlling attitude etc.), interpersonal (such poor communication skills, poor social skills, etc.), and situational (such as lack of guidance, disagreement on partner’s choice of friends, inability to meet partner’s demand etc.) factors are discovered to be active triggers of dating violence among adolescents. The study also discovered that dating violence causes a range of ills that do not promote individual and societal wellbeing and concluded that dating violence is an issue that must be addressed seriously as we gradually progress towards violent free relationships in our societies. The study therefore recommends that guidance counsellors and educators should evolve programmes that can effectively change inappropriate perceptions held by adolescents about dating relationships, and also improve conflict handling skills among adolescents. The study also recommends that influential adults like parents, guardians, teachers and coaches should be trained to work with adolescents to prevent dating violence, while anomalous social behaviours such as use of drugs and alcohol should be discouraged.