Effect of justification of wife-beating on experiences of intimate-partner violence among men and women in Uganda: A propensity matched scores approach

Abstract

In some communities, rationalization of men’s controlling attitudes are associated with justification of gender norms such as wife-beating as a method of correcting spouse behaviour. In this quasi-experimental study, we investigate the causal effects of acceptability of gender norms justifying wife-beating on experiences of sexual, emotional and physical intimate partner violence (IPV) among Ugandan men and women. We analysed the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey data using propensity-score matching. The exposure variable is acceptability of gender norms justifying wife-beating measured on binary scale and the outcomes are respondent’s life-time experiences of sexual, physical, and emotional IPV. We matched respondents who accepted gender norms justifying wife-beating with those that do not using 1:1 nearest neighbor matching with a caliper to achieve comparability on selected covariates. We then estimated the causal effects of acceptability of gender norms justifying wife-beating on the study outcomes using a logistic regression model. Results showed that of the 4,821 (46.5%) out 10,394 respondents who reported that a husband is justified in beating his wife for specific reasons, the majority (3,774; 78.3%) were women compared to men (1,047; 21.7%). We found that at population level, men and women who accept gender norms justifying wife-beating are about 1.5 times more likely to experience each of the three forms of IPV. In the sub-group analysis, men who justify wife-beating were more likely to experience emotional and physical IPV but not sexual IPV. However, women who justify wife-beating were more likely to report experiences all of the three forms of IPV. In conclusion, acceptability of gender norms justifying wife-beating has a positive effect on experiences of different forms of IPV by men and women in Uganda. Government should tackle the drivers of acceptability of gender norms justifying wife-beating at the societal level.

Sexual violence and associated factors among women of reproductive age in Rwanda: a nationwide cross-sectional survey

“…In this study, women who justi ed being beaten by their husbands were more likely to experience sexual violence than those who did not justify beating. This concurs with results from other studies in Nigeria and Uganda that reported a positive link between justi ed beating and sexual violence as well as physical and emotional violence [47,48]. This goes in hand with social norms that empower husbands with the right to use violence against their women and women that are so protective of their family image rather than their health challenges [49].…”

Psychological abuse is not a problem! Exploring the role of domestic violence myths in psychological revictimization

“…According to feminist approaches and international organizations (Bograd, 1990;Dobash et al, 1992;European Commission, 2010;World Health Organization, 2012, an important risk factor in the ability to recognize psychological IPV as a form of violence is represented by a set of false beliefs, defined as domestic violence myths (i.e., IPV myths; Bograd, 1990;Dobash et al, 1992;Peters, 2008;Giger et al, 2017;Lelaurain et al, 2018Lelaurain et al, , 2019, which contribute toward the pervasiveness of abuse in intimate relationships by holding the victim responsible for the abuse, exonerating the perpetrator, and minimizing the seriousness of the crime (Kilpatrick, 2004;Peters, 2008;Giger et al, 2017;Cinquegrana et al, 2018;Lelaurain et al, 2018Lelaurain et al, , 2019. Research has shown that endorsement of IPV myths fosters women's acceptance of psychological abuse (Medarić, 2011;Megías et al, 2018;Cinquegrana et al, 2022a) and, consequently, the prevalence of psychological IPV victimization (Rodríguez-Franco et al, 2012;Mugoya et al, 2015;Spencer et al, 2019;Nazar et al, 2021;Cinquegrana et al, 2022a;Kadengye et al, 2023). Drawing from this evidence, in the present work we examined the mechanism through which myths of IPV may lead to the acceptance of psychological violence in heterosexual intimate relationships.…”

“…IPV myths play a crucial role in the acceptance of psychological IPV. Moreover, past histories of IPV victimization may be related to the abuse perception since the more women manifest acceptance of IPV, the more vulnerable they are to experience it (Faramarzi et al, 2005;Rodríguez-Franco et al, 2012;Mugoya et al, 2015;Spencer et al, 2019;Nazar et al, 2021;Cinquegrana et al, 2022a;Kadengye et al, 2023). Based on this evidence, our working model was to analyze whether the normalization of psychological aggression, namely the perception of psychological aggression as unproblematic, may account for the relationship between women's acceptance of IPV myths and acceptance of psychological aggression in intimate relationships, taking into account the objective existence, or not, of past experiences of psychological abuse (see Figure 1).…”

“…More importantly, it suggests that to the extent they endorse IPV myths, the likelihood increases for women to justify abusive behaviors in intimate relationships (Medarić, 2011;Giger et al, 2017;Lelaurain et al, 2018;Megías et al, 2018). As a result, women will be more likely to accept this form of violence perpetrated against them, thus increasing the risks of victimization (Faramarzi et al, 2005;Rodríguez-Franco et al, 2012;Mugoya et al, 2015;Spencer et al, 2019;Nazar et al, 2021;Cinquegrana et al, 2022a;Kadengye et al, 2023). Consistently, a recent study by Cinquegrana et al (2022a) has shown that greater endorsement of IPV myths predicted a higher prevalence of psychological IPV victimization among women through the mediating role of acceptance of psychological aggression.…”