Factors Affecting Prevalence and Extent of Intimate Partner Violence In Ukraine: Evidence From a Nationally Representative Survey

BACKGROUND: A significant body of research has identified intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrated against women as a pressing international health concern. Despite recent advances in understanding women's vulnerability for IPV in diverse global contexts, little is currently known about IPV in transitional countries of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Data suppression under communism created challenges for researchers seeking to establish valid prevalence rates for IPV; however, emerging data since the transition from communism has suggested that, compared to women in the West, women in countries of the former USSR are at a heightened risk for such violence (Gondolf & Shestakov, 1997; Horne, 1999). Given the historical dearth of research investigating women's experiences of IPV in this region of the world, significant gaps remain in both our empirical and theoretical understanding of women's vulnerability for IPV in transitional countries. The purpose of the present study is to address this gap in the literature by investigating the correlates of IPV in Ukraine. Grounded in an ecological framework, this study investigated the relationship between ontogenic (age; education level; witnessing IPV perpetrated against one's mother in childhood), microsystem (marital status; alcohol consumption of partner), and exosystem/macrosystem (household wealth; region of residence; participation in religious activities; patriarchical dominance: women's decision making power, marital controlling behavior displayed by partner, and women's economic status relative to her partner) on women's reported rates of three forms of IPV (emotional, sexual, and physical) in a nationally representative survey of Ukrainian women. METHODS: This study involved a secondary analysis of data collected as part of the 2007 Ukraine Demographic Health Survey (UDHS) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). UDHS is a cross-sectional, nationally representative survey conducted between July –November 2007 which utilized a three stage stratified cluster sample. The UDHS Domestic Violence Module, which served as the basis for the present analysis, included women in selected households aged 15-49 who slept in the household the night before the survey (n=2,422). Interviews were conducted in person in the respondent's residence. Measures of all key variables were drawn from the standardized Domestic Violence Module developed for use in all countries conducting USAID sponsored DHS research. Data analyses were conducted using binomial and ordered logit regression. RESULTS: Although numerous ecological factors were associated with individual forms of IPV, two factors were common correlates of all three forms of IPV: the frequent intoxication and exhibition of marital controlling behaviors by women's partners, with the frequent intoxication of one's partner being the strongest predictor of all three forms of violence. CONCLUSIONS: Although research and theorizing has commonly focused on the individual traits of women which increase their vulnerability for violence, the most salient factors associated with IPV in Ukraine are not the personal characteristics of battered women but, rather, the behaviors of their abusive partners. These findings support the application of feminist models of IPV and underscore the importance of the development of programming to address alcohol abuse as a violence prevention measure in Ukraine.