Women's Attitudes Toward Wife-Beating and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Among Tanzanian Women

Globally, intimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health concern and the most prevalent type of violence against women. Social norms that condone violence have been strongly associated with intimate partner violence, making them relevant to women's wellbeing. The identification of social norms unique to a population is necessary for interventions based on shifting social norms. Thus, the current research is aimed at examining the association between women's attitudes toward wife-beating (a social norm) and women's experiences of partner's controlling behavior, physical violence, and emotional and sexual abuse in Tanzania from national representative data. The cross-sectional data used for the study were from Tanzanian women (n = 3033) aged 15-49 years who have ever been married or in a relationship and responded to the domestic violence questionnaire. Nearly, 60% of women reported that their most recent partner had engaged in controlling behavior, 27.5% had experienced physical violence, while 23% and 9.1% had experienced emotional and sexual violence, respectively. The multivariate analysis revealed that IPV was more common among women who had a positive attitude toward wife-beating. In addition to other behavioral and structural interventions, changing societal norms that support violence against women may be helpful to prevent IPV among Tanzanian women.