Social Spousal Abuse and Emotional Homeostatic Disequilibrium (EHD) Amid Married Secondary Schools Teachers in Rivers State of Nigeria

Abstract

This study aimed to demonstrate the relationship between social spousal abuse and emotional homeostatic disequilibrium (EHD) among married secondary school teachers in Rivers State of Nigeria. The goals of the study were to enlighten the reader about the EHD phenomenon, to find out the relationship between social spousal abuse and EHD as well as to seek for ways to curb it in marriages. The investigation adopted the ex post facto correlation design and also considered the possible moderating influence of gender on the relationship between social spousal abuse and EHD among the subjects of the study. The population comprised all married teachers in secondary schools across Rivers State of Nigeria, about 8,499 out of which 766 (11%) were selected through stratified random sampling technique for the study. Two instruments namely, the Social Spousal Abuse Scale (SSAS) with five items and Emotional Homeostatic Disequilibrium Scale (EHDS) with 15 items were developed by the researcher for collection of data on social spousal abuse behaviours and EHD indicators. Reliability coefficients of α =.68 and α =.99 for SSAS and EHDS respectively were achieved through Cronbach Alpha. The study was guided by two each of research questions and null hypotheses. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while the null hypotheses were tested with correlation and regression statistics at 0.05 significance level. The statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 was used for data analysis. The results showed that social spousal abuse was significantly related to EHD and that gender was not found to significantly moderate the relationship of social spousal abuse with EHD among subjects of the study. Implications of the study were highlighted among which is that persons in the helping professions should work jointly in order to eliminate EHD in marriages among married secondary school teachers in Rivers State of Nigeria. Suggestions for further studies were equally made. One of them was that this particular study should be replicated on the same population or another with a larger sample size for greater generalisation.