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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 8:31 pm
Time: 8:31 pm
Results for spouse abuse (ghana, uganda, africa)
1 results foundAuthor: Kishor, Sunita Title: Women’s and Men’s Experience of Spousal Violence in Two African Countries: Does Gender Matter? Summary: A large body of global research documents the high prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women across the world and the resulting socioeconomic costs and reproductive and other health consequences for societies, women, and their children (United Nations 2006; Watts and Zimmerman 2002; Campbell 2002). In this literature, IPV is accepted as gender-based, directed disproportionately at women because of their gender. A contrary body of predominantly US-based research argues that IPV is not necessarily gender-based, and that women are as aggressive as men, or even more aggressive, in committing violence against their partners (Archer 2000, 2002; Straus 1990, 1993; Gelles and Straus 1988; White et al. 2000). The debate about gender symmetry challenges us to document the prevalence of IPV experienced by men in developing country settings and to examine how men’s experience of IPV compares and contrasts with IPV experienced by women in its extent, severity, frequency, and health consequences. To better understand the role of gender in IPV outside the developed world, this report compares the experiences of married men and married women with spousal violence, the most common form of IPV, using data from two sub-Saharan African countries, Ghana and Uganda. In these two countries, the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) asked nationally representative samples of women and men about their experience and perpetration of spousal violence using similar questions. Specifically, this paper addresses the following questions: 1. Are the extent, patterns, and severity of the experience of spousal violence similar between men and women? 2. Does the relationship between the experience of and the perpetration of spousal violence differ between men and women? Are women and men equally likely to be victims as well as aggressors of violence? 3. Do the correlates of the experience and perpetration of violence differ between men and women? When these identified correlates are held constant, is gender still a significant predictor of experience and/or perpetration of violence? 4. Is the association between experience and/or perpetration of spousal violence and selected health outcomes similar for men and women? The analysis finds that spousal violence is relatively common among both women and men in the two countries studied, but finds no evidence of gender symmetry: In Uganda, almost half of married women have experienced spousal physical violence compared with almost one-fifth of married men; and in Ghana, 19 percent of married women have experienced such violence compared with 10 percent of married men. Although women are clearly not the only victims of spousal violence, they are consistently and significantly more likely than men to experience all forms—physical, sexual, and emotional—of such violence. Further, the violence that women experience at the hands of their husbands is more common, more severe, and more likely to result in injuries than the violence that men experience from their wives. Men are significantly more likely than women to report that they have perpetrated violence against their spouse. Few women in both countries report perpetrating violence (6to 7 percent), and well-over half of these women who report perpetrating spousal violence also report experiencing it, suggesting that they are in mutually violent marriages. For men, the pattern is much different: More than 40 percent of men in Uganda and 16 percent in Ghana report perpetrating violence against their wives, and among these men who perpetrate violence about one-third in both countries also report experiencing spousal violence. These results demonstrate that, in these two countries, men are significantly more likely to be the aggressors, and women the victims, of spousal physical violence, and that the spousal violence experienced by women is much more syndromic in nature than the violence experienced by men. The study finds that the most consistent correlates of experience and perpetration of spousal violence were whether the respondent’s father beat his/her mother and whether the respondent’s spouse drinks alcohol and gets drunk. After controlling for other characteristics, both parental IPV and spousal alcohol use were associated with increased odds of perpetrating violence for both sexes and in both countries. These same factors were also associated with higher odds of experiencing spousal violence for both women and men in Uganda and for women in Ghana. Due to sample-size constraints, results were not statistically significant for men in Ghana. In a model pooling data for women and men, controlling for all other factors including parental IPV and partner alcohol consumption, women still had significantly higher odds of experiencing violence and lower odds of perpetrating violence compared with men. In examining associations between spousal physical violence and poor health and behavioral outcomes, controlling for background characteristics and associated factors, the report finds that in both countries, women who experienced spousal violence had significantly higher odds of having a self-reported sexually transmitted infection (STI) or STI symptom and of having experienced pregnancy loss (miscarriage or abortion) compared with women who did not experience spousal violence. In Ghana, experience of violence was also associated with higher odds of having a child who died and having a child who is stunted. Ugandan women who perpetrated violence had higher odds of self-reported STIs and Ghanaian women who perpetrated violence had higher odds of pregnancy loss; finally, women in Ghana had a higher number of children ever born and a higher lifetime number of sexual partners, on average, if they had both experienced and perpetrated violence compared with women who had done neither. Men in both countries who had both perpetrated and experienced spousal violence had higher odds of reporting STIs or STI symptoms; additionally, Ugandan men who perpetrated spousal violence, whether or not they had also experienced spousal violence, had higher odds of having had a non-spousal partner in the past 12 months and having paid for sex, and a higher number of children ever born. Ugandan men who only perpetrated spousal violence had a higher lifetime number of sexual partners, as well as higher odds of having had a child who had died, than men who had not perpetrated violence. Ghanaian men who perpetrated violence had higher odds of having had a child who is stunted and lower odds of having used a condom at last sexual intercourse with their most recent sexual partner. (Note: For men information related to children is based on their wives’ reports). In sum, experiencing violence for women is associated with several poor health outcomes for themselves and their children; whereas for men, perpetrating spousal violence is particularly associated with higherrisk sexual behaviors and some poor health outcomes for their children. The findings of this report are unambiguous in demonstrating that the level, intensity, and severity of spousal violence against women are much greater than they are against men; that women are much more likely to be the victims and men the aggressors, even after controlling for other relevant factors; that when men do experience violence it is much more likely to be in a mutually violent relationship, while women are much more likely to be only the victims of violence; and that women and the children of women who experience violence are more likely to experience poor health outcomes than men or the children of men who experience violence. Nonetheless, it is important to note that when women are perpetrators of violence, their male partners do suffer at least some of the same health consequences as suffered by women victims. Based on the findings of this report, it is recommended that elimination of violence against women should remain the highest priority. Nonetheless, programs that are working to reduce violence and its negative health consequences should also take into consideration the fact that not all men are only perpetrators of spousal violence; some are also victims. Details: Calverton, MD: ICF International, 2012. 99p. Source: Internet Resource: DHS Analytical Studies No. 27: Accessed July 19, 2012 at: http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/AS27/AS27.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Africa URL: http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/AS27/AS27.pdf Shelf Number: 125675 Keywords: Domestic ViolenceFamily ViolenceGenderIntimate Partner ViolenceSpouse Abuse (Ghana, Uganda, Africa)Violence Against Women |