Socio economic determinants of spousal violence against women in Myanmar

Abstract

Nowadays, the violence against women by spouses is a hidden social problem embedded in social and cultural norms in Myanmar. However, there are limited numbers of previous studies regarding spousal violence in Myanmar. Some studies utilized a qualitative approach, while some used a quantitative approach in some parts of Myanmar.

This study aims to examine whether socioeconomic and demographic factors affecting spousal violence using a quantitative approach to fill the literature gap at the national level. It uses the data from the 2015-16 Myanmar Demographic and Health Survey. The explanatory variables are demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the women, their family and their husbands’ characteristics. Descriptive results show that nearly one-fourth of sample women (n=2,579) experienced spousal violence at least once in their lifetime. Among them, 22 % experienced spousal violence, 17% experienced physical violence, and 14% faced psychological violence.

The binary logistic regression finds that the early marriage age, the poor family wealth status, husbands who drink alcohol, acknowledgement of women’s father ever beat her mother and women’s justification on spousal violence are significantly explanatory factors to spousal violence. According to the findings, spousal violence is still an important issue. Therefore, the Myanmar government should develop a strategy to promote women empowerment, reconsider the minimum age of marriage for women, as well as implement and enforce of limited permissible hours for the sale and service of alcohol in Myanmar. Moreover, inter-sectoral cooperation should be strengthened to reduce spousal violence.