CAUSES AND PATTERNS OF WIFE BATTERING AMONG MARRIED COUPLES IN SOKOTO STATI~: IMPLICATION FOR COUNSELLING

The main focus of this study was to find out the perception of married people in Sakata State on the causes and patterns of wife battering. The work also examined if SL:X, length of marriage and ethnic group have any influence on the perception of the respondents. J\ total of three hundred and eighty-four (384) married respondents made up of one hundred and eighty-one (181) male and two hundred and three (203) female were involved in the study. The sample was from ten (10) Local Governments randomly selected from Sokoto State. The research instruments used in this study was a questionnaire titled “causes and patterns of wife battering questionnaire” (CPW13Q). It contained twenty-six (26) items designed by the researcher from the review of related literatures. Six (6) research questions were postulated and tested for using tallies, frequency and simple percentages. The results showed that most of the items on the causes and patterns of wife battering were perceived above fifty percent (50%) by the respondent