Factors Associated with Attitude towards Wife-Beating among Married Women of the Reproductive Ages in Arba Minch Town, Southern Ethiopia: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study.

Eshetu Andarge,Yohannes Shiferaw,Yordanos Sisay,Zeleke Gebru,Peter P Egeghy

doi:10.1155/2021/9980268

Eshetu Andarge, Yohannes Shiferaw + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/9980268

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Abstract

Evidence from demographic and health surveys in various countries and Ethiopia too showed that more women are generally believed to justify intimate partner violence (IPV) than men do. An attitude that justifies IPV is one of the factors affecting victimization and perpetration from IPV. However, women's justification about the violence and factors affecting the justification are not well documented, particularly by addressing household factors such as household food conditions. Therefore, the present study aims to fill this gap among married women of childbearing age so that evidence can be drawn for holistic interventions. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 696 currently married women of childbearing age (15–49) by using a multistage cluster sampling technique to obtain the women from 11 kebeles (the smallest administrative unit in the government structure of Ethiopia) of Arba Minch town, Southern Ethiopia. Data were collected using a pretested and structured questionnaire. Logistic regression was performed using IBM SPSS version 20. The odds ratio with its 95% confidence interval was used to show the degree of association between the outcome variable and explanatory variables. Nearly two-thirds (59.5%) of the study women justified wife-beating in at least one of the five conditions. A higher odds of justification of wife-beating was observed among women whose marriage was arranged by any other person than the couples themselves, from food-insecure households, with a family size of 5 and above, in the age group of 30–39 years, and whose partner was in the age range of 31–39 years. In contrast, lower odds of justification of wife-beating was observed among women having an age difference of 10 or more years with their partner and those in a household wealth index of middle and higher category. Despite great efforts in realizing gender equality in the country, a higher proportion of women were having the attitude that justifies wife-beating in the five conditions specified to them. Interventions targeting the improvement of women's attitude towards wife-beating should target against the traditional norms of arranged marriage, improve household food conditions, and decrease family size.

Highlights

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an act of violence against women which comes from an intimate partner and which takes the forms of violence including sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and a controlling behavior
Setting and Design of the Study. is study was conducted in Arba Minch town, Southern Ethiopia, located 505 km to the south of Addis Ababa, from March 10–20, 2017
Arba Minch is the main town of the currently structured Gamo zone and the Gamo Gofa zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Regional (SNNPR) state [18]. e study was conducted as part of a thematic project on “Intimate partner violence and household food security among currently married women in Arba Minch town: magnitude, attitude, and the associated factors.” e first part of it on “disparities in intimate partner violence among married women from e Scientific World Journal food-secure and -insecure households” has already been published [19]. e present study employed a communitybased comparative cross-sectional study among currently married women of childbearing age (15–49 years)

Summary

Introduction

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an act of violence against women which comes from an intimate partner and which takes the forms of violence including sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and a controlling behavior. Is happens as a pattern of control of a wife by her husband, and it is often preceded by threats and verbal abuse making the wife to be solely dependent upon her husband owing to the legal, financial, and emotional ties that bind her to him. In some cases, they themselves believe that the beating has been caused by their actions and are filled e Scientific World Journal with self-blame. Where they dare to report, they are trapped by an unresponsive legal system which does not effectively provide remedies to their claims against the men who seek to control them [2]

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