Beliefs about wife beating: an exploratory study with Lebanese students

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in understanding the sociocultural contexts and risk factors for domestic violence in the Arab world. This study provides an analysis of the religious, legal, and familial contexts of domestic violence in Lebanon and assesses contemporary attitudes toward women and wife beating in a sample of 206 Lebanese university students. Gender, patriarchal attitudes, religion, childhood experiences with family violence, and mother's employment status were investigated as predictors of attitudes toward wife beating. Consistent with feminist theories of wife abuse, gender and attitudes toward women's roles emerged as the strongest predictors of beliefs about wife beating.