Physical partner violence, women’s economic status and help-seeking behaviour in Dar es Salaam and Mbeya, Tanzania

Abstract

Background: Women’s responses to partner violence are influenced by a complex constellation of factors including: psychological attachment to the partner; context of the abuse; and structural factors, all of which shape available options for women outside of the relationship. Objective: To describe women’s responses to physical partner violence; and to understand the role of women’s economic resources on their responses. Methods: Cross-sectional data from Dar es Salaam and Mbeya, Tanzania. Multivariate logistic regression was used to explore the relationship between women’s economic resources and their responses to violence. Results: In both sites, among physically abused women, over one-half experienced severe violence; approximately two-thirds had disclosed the violence; and approximately 40% had sought help. Abused women were more likely to have sought help from health services, the police and religious leaders in Dar es Salaam, and from local leaders in Mbeya. Economic resources did not facilitate women’s ability to leave violent partners in Dar es Salaam. In Mbeya, women who jointly owned capital assets were less likely to have left. In both sites, women’s sole ownership of capital assets facilitated help-seeking. Conclusion: Although support services are being scaled-up in Tanzania, efforts are needed to increase the acceptability of accessing such services.

Disclosure of Intimate Partner Violence and Associated Factors among Victimized Women, Ethiopia, 2018: A Community-Based Study

“…In such conditions, women regularly fail to disclose to others to sought assistance. This finding is in line with the different studies done in Tanzania [29] and Dhaka slum [26].…”

Attitudes towards help-seeking for sexual and gender-based violence in humanitarian settings: the case of Rwamwanja refugee settlement scheme in Uganda

“…However, previous studies show that men are more likely than women to express unwillingness or lack of motivation to seek help for stressful life events [ 42 , 43 ]. The finding of this paper may be attributed to contextual factors such as women’s lack of autonomy and economic empowerment as well as low levels of education compared to men [ 25 – 27 ]. The proportion of women with no education was more than twice higher than that of men (73% and 34% respectively).…”

“…Education has also been shown to be positively associated with a favorable attitude towards seeking help for SGBV. The impact of education is mainly through increased awareness, autonomy and economic empowerment among those with high levels of education [ 25 – 27 ].…”

Intimate partner violence victimization increases the risk of under-five morbidity: A stratified multilevel analysis of pooled Tanzania Demographic Health Surveys, 2010-2016

“…Regional wise, there is a close correlation between the prevalence of IPV victimization and child morbidity; regions with high prevalence of IPV victimization also have reported high rates of child morbidity and mortality [ 5 , 25 – 28 ]. In Tanzania, recent studies indicated that the prevalence of IPV victimization range between 15 to 78% [ 29 – 33 ] while under-five mortality rate is 67 deaths per 1,000 live births [ 33 ], comparatively higher than the global statistics [ 11 , 34 ]. Therefore, exposure to IPV victimization might have a direct or indirect association with child mortality [ 35 , 36 ] or rather morbidity that could lead to mortality [ 24 , 37 , 38 ].…”