Spousal Socio-demographic Gaps and Women’s Justification of Wife-beating in Nigeria

Abstract

Incidents of violence among intimate partners remains an increasing concern in Nigeria. More disturbing is the fact that some women still justify acts of violence (particularly, wife-beating) from their partners. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of spousal demographic gap and other specific demographic constructs in explaining women’s justification of wife-beating. The study is based on married or cohabiting women sampled in the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. The study shows that, overall, 31% of women justified wife-beating. The proportion of women justifying wife-beating ranges from as low as 1% to as high as 89% across the 36 States. Using Binary Logistic Regression, partners’ age difference was not a significant predictor. However, when a woman’s education level is at par (OR = .844, p < .05) or higher than that of her partner (OR = .726, p < .000), she is less likely to believe that a man is justified to beat his wife under any circumstances. Other factors explaining the justification of wife-beating among married and cohabiting women are economic status, place of residence, employment status of partners, and women’s involvement in decision-making. The findings reveal the association between spousal demographic gap and women’s justification of wife-beating. Programs that address individual and structural factors promoting justification of wife-beating become necessary.

Intimate Partner Violence in Nigeria: A Review of the Literature

“…Justification/acceptance of intimate partner violence (IPV) can account for the high prevalence of IPV among women [18,21,22], however in the study conducted by Benebo showed that the prevalence of IPV was higher among women who did not justify wifebeating, an isolated finding explained by the fact that these women are more at risk of IPV because by acting on their perceptions they attract discipline from their partner who may consider them insubordinate [11].…”

“…Other identified predictors of IPV documented include large family size, close age gaps between spouses [25], ethnicity [26], household wealth [27], lack of education [28,29], number of marital unions, rural place residence [21,30] husband alcohol consumption [19], employment status of partners, and women's involvement in decisionmaking [21].…”

“…Women were twice as likely to justify wife beating than men [31]. In Nigeria according to NDHS 2018, 31% of women justified wife-beating with a range of 1% to 89% across the 36states of Nigeria [21]. The Justification for wife beating based on any of the following; if she burns the food, if she goes out without permission, she neglects the children, and she refuses to have sex with spouse/partner [13].…”

“…The Justification for wife beating based on any of the following; if she burns the food, if she goes out without permission, she neglects the children, and she refuses to have sex with spouse/partner [13]. Other reasons seen as justification for wife beating are spousal demographic gap like economic status, place of residence, employment status of partners, and women's involvement in decision-making [21]. However, this trend is said to be reducing in other regions of sub-Saharan Africa where many women now reject all justification in husband beating their wives for any reason [21].…”

An international examination of the role of normative and cultural contexts on attitudinal support for intimate partner violence against wives

“…Cross-nationally, it is estimated that 30 percent of women have experienced physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner at some point in their life (World Health Organization, 2016) although there is tremendous variability in the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) between nations (Devries et al, 2013). In recent years, greater attention has been paid to the correlates of attitudes toward gender roles (Hammond and Cimpian, 2021; Schroeder and Liben, 2021) and violence against women, inclusive of IPV (Akbary et al, 2020; Ola, 2020; Onayemi and Ogungbemi, 2020). Extant meta-analytic work has identified that attitudes toward IPV—among other factors—may play a central role in the experience of IPV (Stith et al, 2004).…”