Women Abuse Screening Tool: A Validation Study on Nigerian Pregnant Women

Domestic violence is identified across the globe as a menace as it poses a threat to the mental health of its victims, the significant others of the victim and the security of a nation at large. In some cases, the victim of domestic violence is a pregnant woman and harm is caused not only to a woman but her fetus also and this calls for urgent psychological assessment and intervention. Although there is no doubt that psychological tests are effective in the assessment of domestic violence, using the psychometric properties obtained from a different population may produce generate inaccurate findings. This paper therefore attempts the validation study of Women Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) using a sample of 379 pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at the State Specialist Hospital, Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria. The study derived a Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability of 0.758, p \u3c.05 and a Guttman split-half coefficient of 0.683, p \u3c.05. Furthermore, concurrent validity of Women Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) and Ongoing Abuse Screen (OAS) was established as 0.29, p\u3c.05. The norms of the instrument were given as 2.38 for tolerable level of domestic violence and 5.79 for severe and pathological level of domestic violence. Authors conclude that Women Abuse Screening Tool has acceptable psychometric properties to justify its usage for the assessment of level of domestic violence among pregnant women in Nigeria and other nations with similar socio-cultural backgrounds

Meseron Therapy and Christian Counselling: A Synergy

Christian Counselling (CC) is the practice of talking with individuals, couples, and families to increase their understanding of emotional and religious conflicts and to help resolve problems using Christian religious injunctions and other related resources.  Meseron Therapy (MT) was developed in accordance with the Nigerian belief in the power, potency and meaning of spoken words and its consequences. MT entails rejecting negativities and accepting the positives, with the techniques of MT reflecting a cognitive orientation. MT and CC approaches have several common grounds. The basic assumptions of MT such as the power of the spoken words to sensitize action, the ignition of man’s inherent potential for change, replacement of a negative status quo with constructive actions and the view of man as a striving creature all have Biblical support. Also, MT’s views on human nature and the causes of psychological disturbance agree with Christian teachings and beliefs. Application of Meseron therapeutic techniques and procedures to CC can be done by using Biblical teachings to enable clients sustain good health, encouraging the good use of endowments, assisting client in mental restructuring through motivation to strive, building and encouraging possibility thinking, enabling the clients to reject distractions from goal accomplishments and getting clients to say it right and synergize their thoughts, words and actions. Keywords:  Christian Counselling, Meseron Therapy, Synergy. DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/10-8-03 Publication date: April 30th 202