Women’s Economic Empowerment, Decision-Making and Intimate Partner Violence: Examining the Correlates of Intimate Partner Violence in Nigeria

Abstract

Intimate partner violence represents a global public health and human rights problem affecting millions of women worldwide. This study explores the association between socioeconomic indicators of women's empowerment and intimate partner violence in Nigeria. Specifically, intimate partner violence was disaggregated into three forms: physical, emotional, and sexual violence, and the correlates of each form were examined. Data from the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) were utilised, focusing on women aged 15–49 years, to investigate these relationships. Using a binary logistic regression model, the estimated marginal effects showed that women's economic empowerment is associated with a significant decline in physical and sexual abuse, while having no significant effect on emotional abuse. Conversely, the study establishes that women's decision-making capacity is associated with a significant reduction in emotional and sexual violence but not physical violence. The findings further reveal that women's education, household wealth, help-seeking behaviour among victims of intimate partner violence, and bank account ownership were important factors associated with intimate partner violence in Nigeria. Women's years of education were found to exhibit a nonlinear relationship with violence. The likelihood of experiencing violence was high and statistically significant at lower levels of education but declined significantly at higher levels of education. On the other hand, the study highlights factors that significantly exacerbated intimate partner violence against women in Nigeria. Specifically, the number of children, cultural norms that justify the use of violence against women, age differences between partners, and regional factors were found to increase the likelihood of domestic violence against women. Keywords: Women, Violence, Empowerment, Decision-Making Power.