Prevalence of Different Types of Intimate Partner Violence among Ever-Married Women: A Sri Lankan Study

Abstract

This study examined the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) among a sample of 600 ever-married women from a representative health administrative area located in the Kandy district of Sri Lanka. IPV was assessed using the world health organization (WHO) instrument developed for use in the WHO multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence against women. Among all participants 59.5% (n=357) have experienced any type of abuse (any form of physical, psychological, sexual abuse and controlling behaviour) at least once during their lifetime. Out of the total 41.3% (n=248) have experienced abuse (any form of physical, psychological and sexual abuse) during the last 12 months. Considering the lifetime IPV experiences, 39.5% (n=237) reported physical abuse, 39% (n=234) reported psychological abuse, 12.3% (n=74) reported sexual abuse and31.3% (n=188) reported generally controlling behaviour by the partner. During the last year 14.8% (n=89) have been physically, 26.3% (n=158) have been psychologically and 7.17% (n=43) have been sexually abused. The present study reveals high lifetime and past year prevalence of IPV compared to other recent studies conducted in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, different types of IPV acts were present with chronic and severe experiences. Hence, interventions should focus on different types of IPV and various abusive behaviours. Further studies are needed to assess the association of different types of IPV and the contributory factors.