A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Young Men’s Gambling and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration in Mwanza, Tanzania

Abstract

Objectives: The prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Tanzania is one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. There are very few studies on the co-occurrence of gambling and IPV and none from LMICs, despite gambling being a behaviour associated with gender norms exalting masculinity underlying IPV perpetration.Methods: Cross-sectional survey data of 755 currently partnered men aged 18–24 from Mwanza, Tanzania were analysed to investigate whether gambling was associated with past-year physical, sexual, emotional and economic IPV. We conducted bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions to control for potential confounders, based on their significant association bivariately with the main outcome variables.Results: Of the men who gambled, 18 percent perpetrated physical IPV, 39 percent sexual IPV, 60 percent emotional IPV and 39 percent economic IPV. Gambling was significantly associated with sexual (aOR: 2.59; 95% CI: 1.70–3.97), emotional (aOR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.12–2.14) and economic IPV (aOR: 1.38; 95% CI: 1.02–1.88) after controlling for confounders.Conclusion: The analysis shows that gambling is associated with IPV perpetration. More research is needed to understand how current IPV prevention efforts can be expanded to include problem gambling treatment.