Multilevel influences on men’s partner violence justification, control over family decisions, and partner violence perpetration in Bangladesh.

Abstract

Objective: Men’s justification of intimate partner violence (IPV), control, and IPV perpetration persist globally. We tested feminist theories of dominant masculinity norms and gendered social learning in childhood to explain young married men’s violent attitudes and behaviors. Method: The sample was ever-married—junior men (18–29 years, n = 774), senior men (30–54 years, n = 2,398), and women (15–49 years, n = 3,841)—in 307 communities from the 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. Two-level logistic regression models tested whether community norms of masculine dominance and childhood exposure to father-on-mother IPV were associated with higher odds of justifying IPV, controlling family decisions, and perpetrating physical IPV. Results: Compared with senior men, junior men more often justified IPV, controlled family decisions, and perpetrated physical IPV in the prior year; junior men also more often were exposed as children to father-on-mother IPV. In multilevel models, witnessing father-on-mother IPV in childhood and living amid stronger norms of masculine dominance were associated, respectively, with higher adjusted odds of justifying IPV (adjusted odds ratios [aORs] = 1.86 and 33.45), controlling family decisions (aORs = 2.03 and 25.03), and perpetrating physical IPV (aORs = 3.19 and 3.39). Conclusion: Findings support a situational, feminist social ecological model of the influences of community norms of masculine dominance and of gendered social learning on young men’s violent attitudes and behavior in marriage. Promoting positive masculinities and reducing men’s exposure to violence in childhood may be needed to curtail violence against women in Bangladesh and similar settings.

Gender‐Equitable Parental Decision Making and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration in Bangladesh

“…Our cross‐sectional sample was limited to two regions in Bangladesh, Dhaka (urban) and Matlab (rural), so the results should not be generalized beyond this scope. However, the present work corroborates and extends prior work in these regions (James‐Hawkins et al, ; Yount, Crandall, et al, ; Yount, James‐Hawkins, et al, ; Yount, Roof, et al, ) and nationally (Naved et al, ). The data are based on self‐report measures and are subject to recall and social desirability bias.…”

“…Recent research in Southeast Asia suggests that intervention strategies to reduce men's IPV perpetration should focus on decreasing children's experience of violence in the home and shifting attitudes and norms of masculinity at the individual‐ and community‐levels (Jewkes et al, ; Krause, Haardörfer, & Yount, ; Yount, Roof, et al, ). However, little is known about how to change norms of masculine dominance.…”

“…Although a range of factors has been identified to increase a man's risk of perpetrating IPV, the predominant focus of this research has been in higher income countries at the individual level (García‐Moreno et al, ). However, researchers recently have begun to explore the multilevel influences on men's IPV perpetration in lower income settings, including parts of South Asia (Gupta et al, ; Heise & Kotsadam, ; Tran, Nguyen, & Fisher, ; VanderEnde, Yount, Dynes, & Sibley, ; Yount, Miedema, Martin, Crandall, & Naved, ; Yount, Roof, & Naved, ).…”

“…IPV is particularly pervasive and highly normalized in Bangladesh, where one in two ever‐married women older than age 15 reports experiencing physical or sexual IPV during their lifetime (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, ; Naved et al, ). Research has generally focused on negative experiences that increase men's risk for perpetrating IPV, such as exposure to masculine dominance in childhood and community norms of masculine dominance (Heilman & Barker, ; Jakupcak, Lisak, & Roemer, ; Pleck, Sonenstein, & Ku, ; Yount, Crandall, et al, ; Yount, Roof, et al, ). The influence of these factors has been found across a range of social settings, regardless of study design (Heilman & Barker, ; Heise & Kotsadam, ; Hindin, Kishor, & Ansara, ; Rydstrøm, ; Tran et al, ; VanderEnde et al, ).…”

Magnitude and correlates of intimate partner violence against female garment workers from selected factories in Bangladesh

“…Indicators of hyper-masculinity such control by intimate partner [ 39 ], his engagement in physical fight with other men, his alcohol or drug abuse, his involvement in sex outside the relationship [ 17 ] were found to be positively associated with IPV. Thus, in tandem with the literature we included these covariates in the models.…”