Attitudes towards Intimate Partner Violence Among Women in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan: An Investigation Using UNICEF-Supported Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys

Purpose: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive global health and human rights violation issue. IPV is associated with substantial negative health, social, and economic consequences for women, their families and each country as a whole. Although considerable knowledge about the prevalence of and risk factors for IPV in developing countries has been amassed, little attention has been paid to the attitudes from which such violence arises. Attitudes about IPV play an important role in shaping the social environment in which victims and perpetrators are embedded. Attitudes affect the occurrence of IPV, victims' help-seeking and family and community members' responses to IPV. Knowledge about and consideration of attitudes about IPV are crucial for developing effective prevention and intervention. This study, to the best of my knowledge, is the first to examine the prevalence and correlates of acceptance of IPV in three Central Asian countries.

Methods: Data were obtained from the UNICEF-supported Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, health surveys that were conducted in 2005-2006. A large, nationally-representative sample was drawn, and in-person interviews were conducted with women (15-49 years) in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan (n=14570, 6973, and 10243 women, respectively).Women were asked if they would approve of a husband beating his wife in five situations: if she argues with him, goes out without telling him, refuses to have sex with her husband, neglects children, and burns food. Information was gathered about socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., age, age at marriage, ethnicity). Descriptive statistics were used to measure the prevalence of acceptance of IPV and describe respondent characteristics. Multivariate logistic regression was used to investigate the independent association of individual- (e.g., age, education level), relationship- (e.g., spousal age difference, polygamous vs. monogamous marriage), and community-level covariates (e.g., community wealth) with women's acceptance of IPV. Estimates were weighted at the national level and adjustments were made for design effects.

Results: The proportion of women accepting IPV for at least one of the situations ranged from 10.4% in Kazakhstan to 37.7% in Kyrgyzstan and 74.4% in Tajikistan. Arguing with the husband and neglecting children were the two most common reasons agreed by women as a justification for IPV, whereas refusing to have sex was the least acceptable reason. Married, poor, less educated women and women who were 10 or more years younger than their spouses were more likely to accept IPV. Youngest women (15-19 years) were least likely to accept IPV in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, whereas in Tajikistan, they had the highest acceptance level. Rural (vs. urban) women were more tolerant of IPV in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan but not in Kazakhstan.

Conclusions and Implications: High acceptance of IPV in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan warrant urgent attention of researchers and practitioners. Higher levels of education and economic growth can reduce the acceptance of IPV. However, the real challenge is to confront cultural norms about gender roles and wife abuse. The relatively low prevalence of acceptance in Kazakhstan needs further exploration. Such research adds to the international knowledge base on socio-cultural conditions that foster or discourage IPV.