Women’s Social Mobility and Attitudinal Acceptance of Wife Abuse: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Bengali, Santal, and Garo Ethnic Communities in Rural Bangladesh

Abstract

Previous studies exploring the influential factors associated with attitudinal acceptance of wife abuse (AAWA) did not widely focus on the relation between women’s social mobility (WSM) and different dimensions of AAWA in rural Bangladesh. This current study examined the association between WSM and different dimensions of AAWA in the context of socio-cultural differences among the Bengali, the Santal, and the Garo ethnic communities in rural Bangladesh. Adopting a cross-sectional design, 1,929 married men and women were randomly included in the study from 8 Bengali, 8 Santal, and 8 Garo villages where 50.2% were women and 49.8% were men. Of the sample, 33.2% Garo, 33.2% Santal, and 33.6% Bengali participants were included in this study. Data revealed that 45.5% of women had low social mobility and the prevalence of different dimensions of AAWA was high and varied among the study communities. We used descriptive statistics, chi-square, and binary logistic regression analysis to estimate the association. The multivariate binary logistic regression analysis results revealed that the likelihood of attitudinal acceptance of overall abuse, psychological abuse, physical abuse, abuse on disobeying family obligation, and abuse on challenging male authority were significantly lower for the respondents who belonged to families where women enjoyed high mobility compared to those who belonged to families where WSM was low. This study also showed that the Bengali and the Santal participants were more likely to accept different dimensions of AAWA compared to the Garos. This study suggests that WSM should be considered in policy-making and implementing interventions to reduce the different dimensions of AAWA in rural Bangladesh.