Married Women’s Justification of Intimate Partner Violence in Bangladesh: Examining Community Norm and Individual-Level Risk Factors

Abstract

One-third of the women worldwide experience intimate partner violence (IPV) that increases their vulnerability to both short- and long-term physical, sexual, reproductive, and mental health problems. Surprisingly, IPV is justified by many women globally. Although the IPV literature to date is mostly focused on risk factors associated with actual occurrences, little is known on attitudinal acceptance of such violence. Also, despite the growing scholarship of community influence and health link, IPV research has relatively overlooked the effects of norms at the community level. Using a representative national sample of 13,611 married women in Bangladesh, this study examined the association of community attitudes and women's individual attitudes toward wife beating. The results revealed that women living in communities with permissive attitudes toward wife beating were more likely to justify husbands' beating (OR=4.5). Women married at a younger age, who had less than primary-level education, lived in households categorized as poor or middle class, and did not consume media appeared to be at higher risk for justifying wife beating. This research adds to a growing research body on community influences on health by examining IPV attitudes and community norms link.

Improved child marriage laws and its association with changing attitudes and experiences of intimate partner violence: a comparative multi-national study

“…The inclusion of covariates was based on a review of the literature of child marriage, norms and IPV [7,19,20,[39][40][41][42]. In our adjusted analyses, we included respondent' s age (grouped in 5-year increments), respondent' s place of residence (defined as urban or rural), respondent' s educational attainment (no education, incomplete primary, complete primary, incomplete secondary, complete secondary, higher), respondent' s current working status (yes or no), respondent' s marital status (never married, married, living with partner, previously married), respondent' s birth year, log GDP per capita, female unemployment rate at the time of survey administration (only included in our women' s attitudes analyses), respondent and partner age difference (only included in our IPV analyses) and the DHS wealth index quintile, a measure of household socioeconomic status (SES), calculated using information regarding household assets (eg, television or radio), housing construction, water access and sanitation facilities [43].…”

How the Community Shapes Unmet Need for Modern Contraception: An Analysis of 44 Demographic and Health Surveys

“…Exposure to health messages is shown to increase health knowledge and improve reproductive health outcomes (Kaggwa, Diop, and Storey ; Wakefield et al. ; Jesmin ; Tekelab, Melta, and Wirtu ). Similarly, knowledge of HIV transmission is associated with higher rates of contraceptive use (Lee et al.…”

“…Higher community-level health knowledge and media exposure can alter community norms realted to expectations of high fertility and resistance to contraceptive use, potentially alleviating unmet need (Retherford and Mishra 1997;Wakefield, Loken, and Hornik 2010;Cleland, Ndugwa, and Zulu 2011). Exposure to health messages is shown to increase health knowledge and improve reproductive health outcomes (Kaggwa, Diop, and Storey 2008;Wakefield et al 2010;Jesmin 2015;Tekelab, Melta, and Wirtu 2015). Similarly, knowledge of HIV transmission is associated with higher rates of contraceptive use (Lee et al 2013).…”

Individual schooling and women's community-level media exposure: a multilevel analysis of normative influences associated with women's justification of wife beating in Bangladesh

“…Global research indicates that newspaper/magazine, television and radio exposure have counteracting effects on justifying IPV 26–29. A limitation of prior research is that analyses have treated exposure to the media as an individual-level effect, when in fact, exposure to media is a community-level phenomenon 30. Given the role of the media as a conduit for community-level normative change, a study of women's media exposure at the community level and its relationship with a woman's attitudes about IPV is warranted.…”