| Intimate partner violence against women in Nigeria: a multi-level study investigating the effect of women’s status and community norms |
| Authors: |
Faith Owunari Benebo, Barbara Schumann, and Masoud Vaezghasemi |
| Source: |
BMC Women's Health, 18(1):136; DOI: 10.1186/s12905-018-0628-7 |
| Topic(s): |
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)
Women's status
|
| Country: |
Africa
Nigeria
|
| Published: |
AUG 2018 |
| Abstract: |
Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women has been recognised as a public health problem with
far-reaching consequences for the physical, reproductive, and mental health of women. The ecological framework
portrays intimate partner violence as a multifaceted phenomenon, demonstrating the interplay of factors at different
levels: individual, community, and the larger society. The present study examined the effect of individual- and
community-level factors on IPV in Nigeria, with a focus on women’s status and community-level norms among men.
Methods: A cross-sectional study based on the latest Nigerian Demographic Health Survey (2013) was conducted
involving 20,802 ever-partnered women aged 15–49 years. Several multilevel logistic regression models were
calibrated to assess the association of individual- and community-level factors with IPV. Both measures of association
(fixed effect) and measures of variations (random effect) were reported.
Results: Almost one in four women in Nigeria reported having ever experienced intimate partner violence. Having
adjusted for other relevant covariates, higher women's status reduced the odds of IPV (OR = 0.47; 95% CI = 0.
32–0.71). However, community norms among men that justified IPV against women modified the observed
protective effect of higher women's status against IPV and reversed the odds (OR = 1.89; 95% CI = 1.26–2.83).
Conclusions: Besides women’s status, community norms towards IPV are an important factor for the occurrence of IPV.
Thus, addressing intimate partner violence against women calls for community-wide approaches aimed at changing
norms among men alongside improving women’s status.
Keywords: Intimate partner violence, women’s status, Community norms, Multilevel analysis, Nigeria |
| Web: |
https://bmcwomenshealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12905-018-0628-7 |
|