Examining Psychosocial Risk Factors for Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration Among Men in Ibadan, Oyo State: A Gap-Filling Study

Research on intimate partner violence in Nigeria has overwhelmingly focused on victimisation rather than perpetration, creating an empirical gap that limits the design of effective perpetrator-targeted prevention programmes. This study examines the psychosocial risk factors for intimate partner violence perpetration among men in Ibadan, Oyo State, South West Nigeria. A cross-sectional analytical design is applied to 260 adult men aged 18 to 55 years recruited through community-based stratified sampling from four residential communities. The Revised Conflict Tactics Scale measures perpetration behaviour, while predictor instruments measure alcohol use (AUDIT-C), childhood violence exposure (CTQ-Short Form), patriarchal gender attitudes (Gender Equitable Men Scale), and emotion dysregulation (DERS). Logistic regression and path analysis in SPSS and AMOS identify the relative contribution of each psychosocial risk factor. Literature from South West Nigerian gender psychology identifies patriarchal attitudes and alcohol use as the most consistently reported perpetration risk factors, with childhood violence exposure operating through emotion dysregulation. The Social Learning Theory and the Nested Ecological Model of Violence by Heise provide the theoretical framework. This study fills a critical perpetration-specific empirical gap. Findings will inform the design of Oyo State gender-based violence prevention programmes targeting male perpetrator risk factors. Keywords: intimate partner violence, perpetration, psychosocial risk factors, men, Ibadan.