Relationship between Gender Role, Attitudes and Perceptions to Intimate Partner Violence among Students: A Case Study of Usiu-Africa University

Remarkably, deeply held and persistent stereotypes have continued to support societal attitudes and cultural beliefs around gender roles and norms, which have resulted to increase in intimate partner violence. The purpose of this study was to examine whether there was a relationship between gender role attitudes and perceptions to intimate partner violence (IPV). The objectives of the study were to examine whether there was an association between gender role attitudes and perceptions to Intimate partner violence; to establish whether there were gender differences in perceptions towards Intimate partner violence; and to establish some of the interventions that can be used to reduce intimate partner violence among USIU-Africa University students. In line with research methodology, a mixed research design was employed in the current study, whereby both descriptive and correlation design were adopted. A total of 71 students from United States International University- Africa sampled through convenience sampling techniques participated in the study. Cochran formula was used to calculate the sample size. For data analysis, SPSS version 20 was used to analyze the data and yielded the following results. The participants had an average age of 28 years old (SD= 1.22). On the determination of the relationship between gender role and perception to IPV, it was shown that there was a very weak negative correlation between gender role attitudes and intimate partner violence, r= -0.10, P< 0.05 but the relationship was not significant. The findings of this study also established that the participants had a moderate level of gender role attitudes (M= 58.01, SD= 7.02) and a moderate intimate partner violence perception (M= 57.97, SD = 4.48). On gender difference in perception to IPV, the results showed that there was no significant gender differences in the IPV perception for male (M = 58.79, SD =2.64) and IPV perception in female (M =57.55, SD=5.15), t(69)= 1.11, P= 0.27. The result clearly implied that both males and females had the same levels of perceptions towards intimate partner violence. For the intervention to IPV, the findings revealed that interventions such as sensitization, psycho-education, mentorship programs, holding seminars and workshops on relationship issues were the most suggested preventive interventions to IPV, whilst working with potential perpetrators and educating parents on IPV were the most preferred strategies to help reduce IPV. Based on the findings, this present study recommended that University and high learning institutions should hold continuous training/workshops or awareness campaigns targeting all students on gender roles attitudes and IPV; Community sensitization forums should be held in various targeted communities to educate parents on the effect of IPV and gender role attitudes on the society and Couple counseling and psycho-education sessions should be held at no cost within the university in order to encourage good relationship and provide an opportunity for sensitization on IPV and gender roles. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was a major challenge in this study.