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Polygyny has shown a positive association with intimate partner violence, yet the nature and mechanisms of this association are not well understood. This study uses data from rural Mozambique to distinguish women in polygynous unions by rank and coresidence. Findings show that senior wives report higher rates of violence than their junior wife and monogamously married counterparts. At the same time, no difference is detected between junior wives and women in monogamous marriages. Additionally, the analysis finds that polygynously married women living away from their cowives report higher rates of violence than both women coresiding with cowives and women in monogamous unions, while the difference between the latter two categories is not statistically significant. However, the results also indicate that senior wives living away from their cowives face particularly high risks of violence. These findings illustrate the social complexity of polygynous marriages and resulting differential vulnerabilities of women in them.

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Objectives Social trust and access to social capital serve as important mechanisms to offset gender disparities in health in low-middle-income countries (LMICs) such as Indonesia. Indonesian women may have fewer opportunities to create strong social ties outside her social sphere and thus may benefit particularly from individual-level thin trust because generalized trust lowers barriers to gaining social support. We examined the role of thin trust and thick trust, two unique forms of social trust, to better understand the links between individual- and community-level trust and maternal health. Thin trust represents generalized trust in community members while thick trust represents strong and longstanding trusting relationships. Methods We employed nationally representative data from Wave 5 of the Indonesian Family Life Survey collected in 2014-2015 (n = 7276) to identify relationships between social trust and the self-rated health (SRH) of women in Indonesia, net of both individual- and community-level controls. Results We found evidence that both thick and thin trust benefit women's health but operate at different levels. While thick trust decreased likelihoods of poor SRH at the community level, thin trust was associated with lower likelihoods of poor SRH at the individual level. Conclusions for Practice We argue that for women in LMICs, trust provides an important mechanism through which women potentially access both tangible and immaterial resources that positively influence health outcomes.

In sub-Saharan settings, parental religion may have important implications for children's health and well-being. Using survey data from rural Mozambique, we examine the relationship between women's religion and the likelihood of their children being chronically malnourished (stunted). Multivariate analyses show that children of religiously affiliated women are significantly less likely to be stunted than children of non-affiliated women. We also find a strong advantage of mainline Protestants, especially compared to members of Pentecostal-type denominations, net of other factors. We relate this advantage to two historically rooted characteristics of mainline Protestantism: its connections to the public health sector and higher levels of women's autonomy that it fosters.