NCJ Number
227299
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 24 Issue: 5 Dated: July 2009 Pages: 323-335
Date Published
July 2009
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This study evaluated the effects of resources and cultural factors on attitudes Africans in Ghana hold about the acceptability of gendered violence, specifically wife battering.
Abstract
Findings from the study support that egalitarian household decisionmaking reduces abuse-supporting ideologies. This seems to be the case among husbands more so than their wives. Limited and mixed results were found on the level of household contribution and attitudes towards abuse. The effect of perceived household contributions differed in how they impacted male and female ideologies toward abuse. The findings suggest that, to some extent, male and female notions about intimate partner violence may be shaped by different mechanisms. The findings provided some support for the resource-based arguments in shaping attitudes towards wife battering in the context of Ghana. Despite the high levels of domestic violence against African women, tests of competing theories on why the practice was common in the region were quite limited. Data from the 2003 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey were used to explore the forces that help in shaping attitudes toward intimate partner violence, a major social and health problem facing many sub-Saharan African nations. The study assessed whether access to resources affected the respondents attitudes toward wife battering, a common form of intimate partner violence in the African region. Tables and references