The Marital Implications of Bereavement: Child Death and Intimate Partner Violence in West and Central Africa

• In Event: 2163 - Instability and Violence in Marital Relationships

Abstract

Research from the United States suggests that losing a child can profoundly affect a couple’s subsequent relationship dynamics and stability. In lower-income, higher mortality contexts, research examining the effects of child loss has focused more squarely on couples’ fertility responses. Bridging this chasm, we use nationally representative survey data from 13 West and Central African countries to estimate a series of multilevel discrete-time hazard models that examine how women’s risk of intimate partner violence (IPV)—an indicator of relationship quality—varies with the death of a young child (under age 5). To better understand the nature of the link between child death and IPV, we further assess whether this association varies in magnitude and significance according to the local prevalence of maternal bereavement. Our findings suggest that, net of a wide range of individual and regional factors, the risk of IPV initiation rises with the loss of a young child. This increase is offset, however, by residing in a region where child loss is more common. Variation in the effects of child loss across its regional prevalence is not explained by concomitant regional variation in gender inequality, fertility, or infrastructural development. Moreover, supplemental analyses reveal no evidence that IPV increases the risk of child death. These findings highlight the importance of child mortality for marital outcomes beyond fertility in the African context and demonstrate the prominent role of the broader mortality context in shaping these implications.

Authors

• Abigail Weitzman, University of Texas

• Emily Smith-Greenaway, University of Southern California