Abuse from in‐laws and associations with attempts to control reproductive decisions among rural women in Côte d’Ivoire: a cross‐sectional study

Abstract

Objective To document the lifetime prevalence of abuse from in-laws (both nonphysical maltreatment and physical violence), the forms of in-law abuse and reproductive control, and the relationship between experiences of in-law abuse and reproductive control among partnered women in rural Cô te d'Ivoire.Design Cross-sectional study using baseline data (October 2010) from a randomised controlled trial examining socio-economic interventions on reduction of violence against Ivorian women.Population A total of 981 Ivorian women aged 18 years and older who reported having a male partner and a current source of stable income.Methods Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression.Main outcome measures Lifetime, in-law-perpetrated reproductive control.Results More than one in four (27.0%) women reported experiencing lifetime in-law abuse. In adjusted logistic regression analysis, in-law abuse was significantly associated with in-lawperpetrated reproductive control (adjusted odds ratio 6.9; 95% confidence interval 3.9-12.2; P < 0.0001). Religion and having fewer pregnancies were also associated with reporting in-lawperpetrated reproductive control.Conclusions Increased efforts are needed to involve in-laws in programmes that seek to reduce gender-based violence against women and improve women's reproductive health.

Reproductive control by others: means, perpetrators and effects

“…In some situations the in-law family can exert a profound degree of control over their daughter-in-law’s life if she is slow to conceive or does not conceive 45. This may consist of forcing a woman to abandon use of contraception, or telling their son to leave her, have a baby with someone else or otherwise to punish her through emotional or physical abuse.…”

Intimate Partner Violence and Reproductive Coercion: Global Barriers to Women's Reproductive Control

“…Recent studies in Côte d'Ivoire and Jordan indicate that, not only do the concept of reproductive coercion and the association between these behaviors and poor reproductive health appear to extend to low- and middle-income countries, but also that potential perpetrators of reproductive coercion include in-laws [19],[20]. Moving beyond epidemiologic studies, recent research in the United States has described the development and evaluation of a reproductive health clinic-based intervention to reduce reproductive coercion in order to reduce unintended pregnancy [21].…”

Recent abuse from in-laws and associations with adverse experiences during the crisis among rural Ivorian women: Extended families as part of the ecological model

“…The survey was administered to women by female enumerators that were language and ethnically matched to the participant. Further study and related intervention information can be found elsewhere (Gupta et al, 2012). All study procedures were approved by the Yale School of Public Health and Innovations for Poverty Action Human Research Committees.…”

“…For example, a recent study documented that over one in four women participating in an economic programme reported any abuse from in-laws in their lifetime in rural Côte d’Ivoire (Gupta, Falb, Kpebo, & Annan, 2012). In global settings, such violence perpetrated by in-laws of women has been linked with a co-occurrence of IPV (Chan et al, 2009; Raj, Livramento, Santana, Gupta, & Silverman, 2006; Raj et al, 2010), and the co-occurrence of such violence has been documented in war-affected populations (Raj, Gomez, & Silverman, 2011); yet there have been few investigations into the risk factors related to victimisation from in-laws, particularly within war-affected areas.…”

“…Moreover, in one study of Afghan refugee women in Pakistan, it was posited that factors related to war-affected environments or refugee settings may strongly influence the likelihood for conflict with mother-in-laws (Hyder, Noor, & Tsui, 2007). As such, researchers have called for the explicit examination of the potential influence of stressors related to conflict-affected settings and how they may impact violence from family members (Gupta et al, 2012), particularly because prior work has documented an association between men’s exposure to conflict and IPV perpetration (Clark et al, 2010a; Gupta et al, 2009, 2010). Such investigations are remarkably important because similar to partner-perpetrated IPV, in-law-perpetrated IPV has been linked with a range of negative heath consequences including injury, poor reproductive health and low reproductive autonomy (Clark, Silverman, Shahrouri, Everson-Rose, & Groce, 2010b; Gupta et al, 2012; Raj et al, 2006, 2010).…”