Embittered Or Relieved? Exploring Gender Difference in Attitudes Towards Physical Intimate Partner Violence Against Women Among Men and Women Who Had Experienced Marital Break-Up

The aftermath of marital dissolution often comes with new several complex physical, social, mental and behavioral realities for individuals who experienced it. Sometimes, feelings of regrets, pains, and of having been cheated could mix with a somewhat feeling of anger or of freedom at last! In this study, we examined how men and women who had experienced marital dissolution (separation or divorce) attend to questions demanding their sense of judgement on male-to-female intimate partner violence against women and further explored whether their responses differ by gender. Similarly, we compared the attitudes of these men and women towards violence to those of their counterparts who were currently married. Our analysis involved a total of 55,132 respondents (men - 13,311; women – 41,821) aged 15 to 59 years who participated in the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). We found that attitudes towards wife-beating varied by gender. While on the average more women (28.9%) than men (22%) were likely to justify wife-beating in the entire sample, women who had experienced marital break-ups were (aOR 0.83, CI 0.73-0.94, p < 0.01) less likely to justify wife-beating compared to counterparts who were currently married. However among men, divorced or separated men were consistently more likely (aOR 1.86, CI 1.30-2.67, p < 0.001) to justify wife-beating compared to currently married men. These relationships remained significant even after controlling for other important factors such as education, media exposure, wealth and other socioeconomic characteristics. Our study calls for closer attention to people’s aftermath after experiencing marital dissolution.