NCJ Number
223273
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 23 Issue: 5 Dated: July 2008 Pages: 333-342
Date Published
July 2008
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Based on data from the 2003 Kenya Demographic Health Survey, this study examined factors linked with the physical and sexual abuse of wives among a sample of 4,876 married women between 15 and 49 years old.
Abstract
Forty percent of the married women reported experiencing at least one type of violence, with 36 percent of the abused women reporting physical violence and 13 percent reporting sexual violence. Factors that increased a woman's risk for physical and sexual abuse were living in a poor household; being Christian; being in a polygamous marriage; having a husband who drinks alcohol; and being in sales, agricultural, or unskilled jobs. A wife's education had a significant effect on both physical and sexual abuse, but the relationships were not linear. The wife's age and number of children were significantly associated only with physical abuse. The husband's education had a marginal but significant effect only on sexual abuse. Because physical and sexual abuse against married women have roots in socially constructed gender norms, it is important to identify community perceptions of the physical and sexual abuse of women and how they are related to men's behavior toward women. The perceptions that foster the abuse of women should be addressed through education and counseling of both men and women in individual cases. The questionnaire measured the dependent variables of physical and sexual violence (forced sex). The three sets of independent variables measured were household shared characteristics, wife's sociodemographic characteristics, and the husband's sociodemographic characteristics. 3 tables and 43 references