TY - JOUR
T1 - Associations between bride price stress and intimate partner violence amongst pregnant women in Timor-Leste
AU - Rees, Susan
AU - Mohsin, Mohammed
AU - Tay, Alvin Kuowei
AU - Soares, Elisa
AU - Tam, Natalino
AU - da Costa, Zelia
AU - Tol, Wietse
AU - Silove, Derrick
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding was from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.
Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the support and involvement of the Alola Foundation, Timor-Leste.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Author(s).
PY - 2017/8/28
Y1 - 2017/8/28
N2 - Background: Reducing violence against women is a global public health priority, particularly in low-income and conflict-affected societies. However, more needs to be known about the causes of intimate partner violence (IPV) in these settings, including the stress of bride price obligations. Methods: The representative study of women attending ante-natal clinics in Dili, Timor-Leste was conducted between June, 2013 and September, 2014 with 1672 pregnant women, a response rate of 96%. We applied contextually developed measures for the stress of bride price and poverty, and the World Health Organisation measure for intimate partner violence. Results: Compared to those with no problems with bride price, women with moderate or serious problems with that custom reported higher rates of IPV (18.0% vs. 43.6%). Adjusting for socio-demographic factors, multivariate analysis revealed that ongoing poverty (OR=1.75, 95% CI: 1.20-2.56) was significantly associated with IPV. Importantly, the strongest association with IPV was problems with bride price (OR=2.73, 95% CI: 1.86-4.01). Conclusions: This is the first large consecutively sampled study to demonstrate a strong association between the stressors of bride price and poverty with IPV. Notably, bride price stress had the strongest association with IPV. Revealing this hitherto unrecognized factor of bride price stress may prove pivotal in guiding policy and interventions aimed at reducing IPV, and thereby improve the health and psychosocial status of women in low income and conflict-affected settings.
AB - Background: Reducing violence against women is a global public health priority, particularly in low-income and conflict-affected societies. However, more needs to be known about the causes of intimate partner violence (IPV) in these settings, including the stress of bride price obligations. Methods: The representative study of women attending ante-natal clinics in Dili, Timor-Leste was conducted between June, 2013 and September, 2014 with 1672 pregnant women, a response rate of 96%. We applied contextually developed measures for the stress of bride price and poverty, and the World Health Organisation measure for intimate partner violence. Results: Compared to those with no problems with bride price, women with moderate or serious problems with that custom reported higher rates of IPV (18.0% vs. 43.6%). Adjusting for socio-demographic factors, multivariate analysis revealed that ongoing poverty (OR=1.75, 95% CI: 1.20-2.56) was significantly associated with IPV. Importantly, the strongest association with IPV was problems with bride price (OR=2.73, 95% CI: 1.86-4.01). Conclusions: This is the first large consecutively sampled study to demonstrate a strong association between the stressors of bride price and poverty with IPV. Notably, bride price stress had the strongest association with IPV. Revealing this hitherto unrecognized factor of bride price stress may prove pivotal in guiding policy and interventions aimed at reducing IPV, and thereby improve the health and psychosocial status of women in low income and conflict-affected settings.
KW - Bride price
KW - Intimate partner violence
KW - Poverty
KW - Stress
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U2 - 10.1186/s12992-017-0291-z
DO - 10.1186/s12992-017-0291-z
M3 - Article
C2 - 28847312
AN - SCOPUS:85028383853
VL - 13
JO - Globalization and Health
JF - Globalization and Health
SN - 1744-8603
IS - 1
M1 - 66
ER -