Conflict Resolution Amongst Intimate Partners:Is Counseling An Appropriate Intervention

The escalating cases of passion killings were of great concern in Botswana. Many women were killed by their jilted male lovers in the name of love. Religious leaders, dikgosi, as well as parents were pledged to curb the increase in passion killings. However, counseling was not on the list. The purpose of the study was to examine the appropriateness of counseling as a strategy for conflict resolution among intimate partners. In this study, conflict resolution skills were measured by using CRSS prior and post to the intervention. The methodology of this study was experimental method; with pre-test, post-test, and control group design. Purposive sampling was conducted to select the sample that included20youth individuals who were referred to the researcher by UB counseling center. The referrals were done for about a month. Individuals were randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. Consequently, the results of the posttest indicated that counseling improved conflict resolution skills (p<.05) for the experimental group. Moreover, the results showed that counseling was effective in conflict resolution in post-test (p<.05). In conclusion the findings of this study indicated that counseling is an appropriate intervention in conflict resolution among intimate partners in Botswana.