INFLUENCE OF GENDER AND PERCEIVED CHILDHOOD ADVERSITY ON ATTITUDE TOWARDS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

The study investigated the effect of gender and perceived childhood adversity on attitude towards domestic violence among students at the Federal University Oye- Ekiti (FUOYE), Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design was employed and 515 undergraduate students were selected from Oye and Ikole campuses using convenience sampling technique. Data were collected using standardized questionnaire and descriptive statistics was used to analyze the demographic data, while independent samples t test, one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple regression analysis were conducted at the 0.05 significance level. The result indicated that perceived childhood adversity (t(513) = -0.508, p >.05), gender (t(513) = 0.721, p >.05) did not influence attitude towards domestic violence. However, Gender and perceived childhood adversity jointly predicted attitudes towards domestic violence (R =.42, R 2 =.21, F(2,512) = 68.74, p <.05) and statistically explained 21% of the variance in attitude towards domestic violence. It is recommended that the management of Federal University Oye-Ekiti should encourage violence prevention programmes that would address multiple psychosocial factors in attitude change among undergraduates.