Attitudes and Experience of Intimate Partner Violence among Ever-Married Women in Uganda

Sitawa R. Kimuna, East Carolina University
Yanyi Djamba, California Department of Public Health

We examine how imbalanced gender-relations driven by the cultural norm of male domination sustain IPV in Uganda. We use the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (2016 UDHS) to assess the prevalence and risk factors of IPV. We focus on ever-married women ages 15 to 49, who were administered the domestic violence module. We use data on N=7536 women who completed interviews. Preliminary results show that almost 57 percent (56.9%) of women had experienced violence at some point in their lives after turning fifteen. The prevalence of IPV was highest among participants, who were in older age groups, who resided in rural areas, and who had low levels of education. Despite recent government interventions via various legislative initiatives, IPV is still relatively high and require further research and more evidence driven policies and actions. We discuss the findings through the theoretical lens of resource, status inconsistency, patriarchy, and gender roles.