The Effect of Economic Reliance, Stress, and Women’s Employment Status on Intimate Partner Violence Risk Among Partnered Women in Burkina Faso and Kenya

Abstract

Economic factors, such as economic reliance on male partners, and economic stressors such as household income or employment loss, play an important role in the risk of intimate partner violence (IPV) within romantic partnerships. To investigate these relationships, we used survey data from IPUMS Performance Monitoring for Action that were collected in 2020 and 2021. We assessed the relationship between several economic factors—(1) women’s economic reliance on their partners, (2) household income loss, and (3) respondent’s employment status over the past year—and experience of IPV in the past year in Burkina Faso ( N = 2,646) and Kenya ( N = 3,416). Women who reported being economically reliant on their partners were less likely to experience physical or psychological violence in Burkina Faso (Prevalence ratio [PR]: 0.41, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.26–0.64 and PR: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.59–0.94, respectively), and physical violence in Kenya (PR: 0.69, 95% CI: 0.52–0.90) compared to women who reported not being economically reliant. In Kenya, women in households that experienced a complete loss of income were more likely to experience IPV compared to households that did not experience income loss—1.9 times more likely to experience psychological violence, and three times more likely to experience sexual violence. In Burkina Faso, no significant relationship was found between household income loss and IPV. Our findings indicate that both relative economic empowerment and overall economic stress may act as important risk factors for IPV, particularly where patriarchal and gender inequitable norms are relevant. These findings reinforce the need for a nuanced and intersectional understanding of IPV risk and intervention development, with the relationships between economic dynamics and IPV varying across countries and contexts.