TY - JOUR PY - 2020// TI - Spousal socio-demographic gaps and women's justification of wife-beating in Nigeria JO - Journal of interpersonal violence A1 - Onayemi, Olayinka M. A1 - Ogungbemi, Emmanuel B. SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - Incidents of violence among intimate partners remains an increasing concern in Nigeria. More disturbing is the fact that some women still justify acts of violence (particularly, wife-beating) from their partners. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of spousal demographic gap and other specific demographic constructs in explaining women's justification of wife-beating. The study is based on married or cohabiting women sampled in the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. The study shows that, overall, 31% of women justified wife-beating. The proportion of women justifying wife-beating ranges from as low as 1% to as high as 89% across the 36 States. Using Binary Logistic Regression, partners' age difference was not a significant predictor. However, when a woman's education level is at par (OR =.844, p <.05) or higher than that of her partner (OR =.726, p <.000), she is less likely to believe that a man is justified to beat his wife under any circumstances. Other factors explaining the justification of wife-beating among married and cohabiting women are economic status, place of residence, employment status of partners, and women's involvement in decision-making. The findings reveal the association between spousal demographic gap and women's justification of wife-beating. Programs that address individual and structural factors promoting justification of wife-beating become necessary.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0886-2605 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0886260520978192 ID - ref1 ER -