Intimate partner violence in a dyadic perspective in Sub-Saharan Africa

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

Abstract

Scant research has examined couple-level concordance in responses to questions about gendered power dynamics and women’s autonomy in sub-Saharan Africa and no studies that we know of have examined the association between concordance in attitudes and incidence of intimate partner violence. In this study, we seek to address both of these current gaps in the literature using Demographic Survey data from 30 African Countries. Specifically, we address the following research questions: (1) What is the geographic distribution of attitudinal concordance in regards to women’s decision-making and the acceptability of wife-beating across 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa? (2) What socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of couples predict concordance in responses to questions about gendered power and women’s autonomy? (3) What is the association between couple-level attitudinal concordance (versus discordance) and women’s experiences of intimate partner violence?

Author

• Margaret Frye, University of Michigan