Intimate Partner Violence in Nigeria: A Review of the Literature

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a pervasive human rights issue of great public health importance in Nigeria. This article aims to review and synthesize available knowledge on Intimate Partner Violence in Nigeria and provides information that fills the knowledge gap noted in international and global reports related to Nigeria’s experiences. A literature search was conducted on empirical studies in English using the keywords ‘Intimate, Partner, Violence, IPV AND Nigeria.’ The databases searched were Research for Life r4Life, Google Scholar and ProQuest Central and the articles included in this review cover studies published from 2008 to 2023. The results show that IPV studies have multidimensional approaches and are influenced by multi-level predictors across cultural, socioeconomic, and educational factors. Interventions are therefore multiprong to address specific aspects depending on the context. Regional differences exist giving varied results, each community setting may have peculiarities that cannot be generalized to every Nigerian community. Future research should focus on large-scale community-based primary research to address IPV. Keywords: ‘Intimate, Partner, Violence, Domestic Violence, IPV AND Nigeria.