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Cited by 172Intimate Partner and Family ViolenceElder Abuse and NeglectSexual Assault and Victimization Studies

Risk factors for domestic physical violence: national cross-sectional household surveys in eight southern African countries

Open access
Andersson, Neil, Ho-Foster, Ari, Mitchell, Steve, Scheepers, Esca, Goldstein, Sue·2007·BMC Women's Health
DOI 10.1186/1472-6874-7-11PMC PMC2042491
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: The baseline to assess impact of a mass education-entertainment programme offered an opportunity to identify risk factors for domestic physical violence. METHODS: In 2002, cross-sectional household surveys in a stratified urban/rural last-stage random sample of enumeration areas, based on latest national census in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Working door to door, interviewers contacted all adults aged 16-60 years present on the day of the visit, without sub-sampling. 20,639 adults were interviewed. The questionnaire in 29 languages measured domestic physical violence by the question "In the last year, have you and your partner had violent arguments where your partner beat, kicked or slapped you?" There was no measure of severity or frequency of physical violence. RESULTS: 14% of men (weighted based on 1,294/8,113) and 18% of women (weighted based on 2,032/11,063) reported being a victim of partner physical violence in the last year. There was no convincing association with age, income, education, household size and remunerated occupation. Having multiple partners was strongly associated with partner physical violence. Other associations included the income gap within households, negative attitudes about sexuality (for example, men have the right to sex with their girlfriends if they buy them gifts) and negative attitudes about sexual violence (for example, forcing your partner to have sex is not rape). Particularly among men, experience of partner physical violence was associated with potentially dangerous attitudes to HIV infection. CONCLUSION: Having multiple partners was the most consistent risk factor for domestic physical violence across all countries. This could be relevant to domestic violence prevention strategies.

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  • Gender norms and attitudes were assessed with seven Likert items taken from a survey on intimate partner violence conducted in eight African countries.

    “To assess gender norms and attitudes, we asked seven Likert-scale questions, taken from a survey on IPV conducted in eight African countries (Andersson et al., 2007).”

    From Sexual and gender-based violence against South Sudanese refugees in Uganda: a mixed-methods study (2025) · cites this paper as Andersson et al., 2007

    The Methods (Outcome measures) and Appendix document questions on attitudes and subjective norms about domestic and sexual violence in the eight-country survey. The Appendix does not establish that the questions were Likert-scale items or identify the particular seven selected by the citing authors. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Walker A Hershow C Nicholas S Crime in England and Wales 2005/6 2006 Home Office Statistical Bulletin, London

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Authors
Andersson, N., Ho-Foster, A., Mitchell, S., Scheepers, E., & Goldstein, S.
Affiliations
  • Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero (MX)
  • Soul City Institute for Health & Development Communication (ZA)
Corresponding author
Andersson, Neil
ORCID
Andersson, Neil
Venue
BMC Women's Health
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2007-07-16
Volume
7
Issue
1
Pages
11-11
ISSN
1472-6874 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/1472-6874-7-11
PMC
PMC2042491
OpenAlex
W1980711613
Cited by
171
References
27
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 14
FWCI
7.74
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • BMC Women s Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Funders
European Commission
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Health › Intimate Partner and Family Violence
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Elder Abuse and Neglect
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies
Keywords
intimate partner violence, risk factors, multiple sexual partners, sexual attitudes, sexual violence attitudes, gender differences in victimization, Southern Africa, domestic violence prevention
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Africa, Southern, Cross-Sectional Studies, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Educational Status, Family Characteristics, Female, Health Surveys, HIV Seropositivity, Humans, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Male, Middle Aged, Surveys and Questionnaires, Risk Factors, Rural Population, Sexual Behavior, Sexual Partners, Socioeconomic Factors, Spouse Abuse, Urban Population, Odds Ratio, Censuses

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