Statistical analysis of domestic violence against married women in IvaNiva district, south

Gonder, Ethiopia

Natnael Mamuye (naty.buna@gmail.com)

Debre Berhan University, College of Natural and Computational Science, Department of

Statistics
 Abstract

Background

Domestic violence occurs in all communities and transcend social, economic, religious and
cultural group. Around the world at least one woman in every second has been beaten, coerced in
to sex otherwise abused in her life time. This paper is also on domestic violence against married
women and its main objective was to make statistical analysis on domestic violence against
married women in IvaNiva district, south Gonder of Ethiopia.

Methods

To achieve its objective, a sample of 119 married women were selected by using simple random
sampling technique and descriptive statistics, chi-square test of association and binary logistic
regression was applied to analyze the data which was obtained by using structured questionnaire.

Results

The paper found that the prevalence of domestic violence was 68.9 % in IvaNiva district which
is turned out to be extremely high compared to other similar figures. Furthermore having
relatively large number of children, married to unfamiliar person , married to alcoholic person,
married to a person in different age category, married to uneducated person, having relatively
low family income and not using modern contraceptive method are all factors that increase the
risk of women to domestic violence.

Conclusion

The results presented describe a phenomenon that is very common but still little known:
violence against women committed by their intimate partners, as revealed by its great
magnitudes of prevalence, severity and recurrence. Furthermore, even if new analyses and
studies are recommended, the knowledge now available makes it legitimate to consider that there
is an urgent need to implement, supervise and evaluate public policies that are specially directed
towards intimate partner violence.

Key words: domestic violence, risk factors, logistic regression, IvaNiva

List of abbreviation
AOR --------------------------------------------------Adjusted odd ratio

CSA---------------------------------------------------Central statistical Agency (Ethiopia)

IPV----------------------------------------------------Intimate Partner Violence

HRM -------------------------------------------------Human Resource Management

Log ---------------------------------------------------natural logarism

MSN--------------------------------------------------Microsoft Network

X 2tab -------------------------------------------------tabulated value of Chi-square

WHO-------------------------------------------------World Health Organization

Background
Domestic violence is defined by different researchers in different ways. For instance Violence is
defined by the world health organization (WHO) as intentional use of physical force or power,
threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, against a group or community that either
results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, mal
development or deprivation [1]. Other studies such as Tenaw called domestic violence as spousal
abuse or IPV and they defined it as behavior within an intimate relationship that causes
physical, sexual, or psychological harm, including acts of physical aggression, sexual coercion,
and psychological abuse and controlling behaviors [2]. Domestic violence specifically against
women is also defined in African context by Protocol to the African Charter on Human and
Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa that was adopted in Maputo on 11 July 2003
and entered into force on 25 November 2005. This protocol defines Violence Against Women as:
All acts perpetrated against women which cause or could cause them physical, sexual,
psychological, and economic harm, including the threat to take such acts; or to undertake the
imposition of arbitrary restrictions on or deprivation of fundamental freedoms in private or
public life in peace time and during situations of armed conflicts or of war [3].

Domestic violence occurs in all communities and transcend social, economic, religious and
cultural group. Around the world at least one woman in every second has been beaten, coerced in
to sex otherwise abused in her life time. Most often the abuser is a member of her own family.
Studies also suggest that from one fifth to more than half all women have been physically
assaulted by a spouse or male intimate in their life time [4]. Despite the fact that domestic
violence exists in all counties of the world, its severity varies from society to society and culture
to culture. The World Health Organization multi-country study indicated that worldwide
domestic violence against women was ranged 15% in Japan to the highest level 71% in Ethiopia
[5]
Many international researches indicate that while the root cause of such violence is inequality in
gender relation, there are several factors such as economy, cultural and social norm that
contribute to the severity and frequency of gender based violence. In addition married women
suffered from different victimization due to different reason. This is like economic dependency,
lack of educational opportunity, incapability of sexual relationship with partner, traditional way
of marriage contract and cultural and biological forces like the superiority of males in different
sector such as decision making, sexual motivation and etc.

In many part of the world there are many type of violence against married women, like beating
sexual harassment and other. And its consequence is by far broader than the impact on the
women victim [6]. Their family and friends may also be affected. In the case of intimate partner
violence there is increasing evidence of the negative impact on children of exposure to violence
in the family. Society suffer economically both in the use of resource and in the loss of evidence
productivity due to fear.

Recent research revealed that domestic violence against women is serious problem and rates in
sub-Saharan Africa rank high even relative to other developing regions of the world. For
instance, 46% of Ugandan women, 60% of Tanzanian women, 42% of Kenyan women and 40%
of Zambian women report regular physical abuse by their husbands [7].

In spite of the growing recognition of domestic violence against women and progress made in
developing continents like Africa, there is still lack of basic information on the prevalence of the
problem and the understanding of its root causes. The limitation of research work in Africa by no
means implies the absence of the problem and the insignificant of its magnitude in the continent.
In Ethiopia like most of African countries violence within the family has been recognized as
major social problem recently. The main reason for the delay in its recognition as a social
problem is that the responses to domestic violence are influenced by cultural and social value. In
the country a nationwide study on the prevalence against has not conducted and documented
well. However, as some studies, police and media reports indicate that its prevalent is extremely
high and is on the rise. Due to the existing socio-economic position of women, cultural and
religious barriers a large number of abused wives dont report the crime or the violence [8].
It has become clear that in Ethiopia pervious research showed that domestic violence has
negative implication for the stability of marriage, the quality of family life and socialization of
children. The woman is offered limited chance for progress and development, which in turn has a
profound impact on the development of the society as a whole, as its female members are
prevented from exercising their fundamental right and creative potential [9]. Actual and
threatened violence creates a pervasive atmosphere of fear that limits the lives of women,
restricting their freedom of movement and their ability to participate in public decision making
and affecting their standard of living.

Ethiopia is a state party to many international and regional human rights instruments including
the convention on the elimination of discrimination against women. The Ethiopian government
recognizes the role played by civil society organizations in the promotion and protection of
womens rights [10]. However, violence against women is very common practice in Ethiopia
even if it is the twenty first century.

This paper is all about domestic violence and has an aim of assessing domestic violation against
married women in IvaNiva Kebele, South Gonder of Ethiopia. Statistical method such as
descriptive statistics and inferential statistics specifically chi-square test of association and
binary logistic regression has been used to analyses the data which has been obtained through
questionnaire.

Objective of the Study

The main objective of this study was to make statistical analysis on domestic violence against
married women in IvaNiva Keble, south Gonder of Ethiopia and the specific objectives are

To assess the prevalence of violence against married women in IvaNiva Keble.

To identify factor that put women at risk of partner violence in the study area.
Methodologies

Description of the Study Area

This study was conducted in IvaNiva Kebele which is found in Amhara region, south Gondar
zone, and Farta woreda. It is located around 667 km far from Addis Ababa and 99 km far from
Bihar Dar. According to CSA, the Kebele has 5645 population of which 2743 of them are
females. Furthermore 853 of them are married women

Sampling Technique and Sample Size Determination

Target Population

The Target populations of this study were those women who got married before these particular
study and who live in IvaNiva Kebele of southern Gonder

Sampling Technique
Sampling technique is a system of taking small ratio of observation from large population [11].
Simple random sampling technique is the one that give an equal chance to each and every unit of
the population to be selected. Simple random sampling was used in this study because the
researcher assumes that the population in IvaNiva Keble is homogeneous with respect to the
problem of interest as they share many common characteristics.

Sample Size Determination

The decision about the size of the sample to be used is one of the most important decisions in the
planning of sample survey. As the sample size increases the precision of the statistic as the
estimator of the corresponding parameter increases. However too large a sample size will imply
west of resource, too small of a sample size is likely to produce in adduct precision. To determine
the optimum sample size, the level of precision, the level of confidence and the degree of
variability have also been taken in to account. For this study simple random sampling is used and
accordingly the sample size determination formula adopted is given [12]

(Z /2)2 pq
no=
e2
Where no is the initial sample size, Z /2 is the value of standard normal distribution that

gives an area of /2 to the right of it, e is the desired level of precision (in the same unit of

measure as the variance), p is the proportion of women who experience violence in last year.

Using p=.05, e=9% and 95%confidence level, the sample size is computed as
1.96


2 0.5 ( 0.5 )

(Z / 2)2 pq
no= =
e2

Thus 119 married women was selected using random number table to represent the whole
elements in the population.

Method of Data Collection

There are two major types of data collection methods, namely the primary method of data
collection and secondary method of data collection. The primary method of data collection used
to collect raw data from respondent through observation, personal interview, questioners and etc.
secondary data is a data that obtained from primarily collected documents [12]. In this study the
data was collected by using primary sources. It was collected by self administrative
questionnaires. The questionnaire is adopted from previous similar work by making some slight
modification based on the objective of the study and study area characteristics.

Method of Data Analysis

The cross sectional data was analyzed with reference to the purpose or objective of the study.
Analysis was done with reference to the proposal problem at hand or the hypothesis. Therefore in
this study both descriptive statistics and inferential method such as chi-square test of association
and logistic regression was used to analyze the data.
Descriptive Statistics
Descriptive statistics utilizes numerical and graphical method to look for patterns in the data set,
summarize the information related in a data set and to present the information in a convenient or
meaningful form. For this study descriptive method such as frequency distribution table,
proportion, were used to summaries the most important features of the sample data.

Inferential statistics

The objective of statistical inferences is to make conclusion about a population based on the
information obtained from the sample. Since population is characterized by numerical
descriptive measures called parameter, statistical analysis is concerned with making inference
about population parameter based on results obtained from the sample statistic. From different
type of inferential statistics this paper has used chi-square test of association and logistic
regression analysis.

Chi-square Test of Association

In this method the objective is to test whether there is association between two categorical
variables or not. There are two set of that we concerned. These are observed and expected
frequency. Observed frequency is the number of subject and object actually observed in the
sample. Expected frequency is the number of subject or object in our sample in which we expect
to observe. For this study chi-square test of association is used to determine the relationship
between domestic violence with different characteristics for instance marriage duration, alcohol
consumption of partner.

The hypothesis for chi-square test of association is stated as

H=there is no association between the dependant and independent variables.

H=there is association between the dependant and independent variables.

To test the above hypothesis, the test statistic is given by

Oij
(eij)
Eij
2
X cal=
 Where X cal =chisquare distribution , Oij=observed frequency and

E=expected frequency .then Xcal would be compared with the tabulated value(

( c1 )(r1)
X tab=X )and if the test statistic is greater than the tabulated value, the null

hypothesis is rejected and we can conclude that that there is association between dependant and
independent variable.

Binary logistic model

Logistic regression models a relationship between predictor variables and a categorical response
variable [10]. That is Logistic regression helps us estimate a probability of falling into a certain
level of the categorical response given a set of predictors. We can choose from three types of
logistic regression, depending on the nature of the categorical response variable:
Binary Logistic Regression: is used when the response is binary (i.e., if it has two possible
outcomes). Examples of binary responses could include passing or failing a test, responding yes
or no on a survey, and having high or low blood pressure etc.
Nominal Logistic Regression: is used when there are three or more categories with no natural
ordering to the levels. Examples of nominal responses could include departments at a business
(e.g., marketing, sales, HRM), type of search engine used (e.g., Google, Yahoo!, MSN), and
color (black, red, blue, orange).
Ordinal Logistic Regression: is used when there are three or more categories with a natural
ordering to the levels, but the ranking of the levels do not necessarily mean the intervals between
them are equal. Examples of ordinal responses could be how students rate the effectiveness of a
college course on a scale of 1-5, levels of flavors for hot wings, and medical condition (e.g.,
good, stable, serious, critical). For this particular paper, the dependent variable is act of domestic
violence by husband is dichotomous (yes or no).Therefore binary logistic regression is
appropriate model to estimate the probability of women experiencing violence by her intimate
partner.
Model description of binary logistic regression
Logistic regression is used to predict a categorical (usually dichotomous) variable from a set of
predictor variables. For a logistic regression, the predicted dependent variable is a function of
the probability that a particular subject will be in one of the categories. Particular issues with
logistic regression include non normal error terms, non constant error variance, and constraints
on the response function (i.e., the response is bounded between 0 and 1).
The multiple binary logistic regression model that relate the dependent variable(Y) with K
independent variables is given by

e( 0 + 1 X 1+ 2 X 2+ kXk)
( x )=
1+e( 0+ 1 X 1 + 2 X 2+ kXk )

Y
We use the quantity to represent the conditional mean of Y given x
( x )= p ( Y =1 /x )=E

when the logistic distribution is used and is called probability of success. In matrix form, the
above model can be written as

(X )
e
( x )= ( X)
1+e

A transformation of (x) that is central to logistic regression model is the Logit

transformation. This transformation is defined, in terms ( x )

(x)
g ( x ) =log ( )= 0+ 1 X 1+ 2 X 2+ kXk
1 ( x )

The importance of this transformation is that g( x) has many of the desirable properties of a

linear regression model. The Logit g(x) is linear in its parameters, may be continuous, and

may range from < X < depending on the range of x. for logistic regression the
quantity e may assume one of two possible values. If y=1 , then e = 1 ( x ) with

probability ( x ) and if y=0 then e =- ( x ) with probability 1 ( x ) . Thus, e has a

distribution with mean zero and variance equal to ( x ) (1 ( x )) . That is, the conditional

distribution of the outcome variable follows a binomial distribution with probability given by the

conditional mean ( x ) .

Parameter estimation

The maximum likelihood and non-interactive weighted least squares are the most computing
estimation methods used in fitting logistic regression [13]). But in this study maximum likely
hood estimation method would be used to estimate the parameters in binary logistic regression
model.
For a sample of size n, the likelihood for a binary logistic regression is given
n
L ( ; y , X )= ( x ) yi 1 ( x )1 yi
i=1

n
e( Xi) yi 1 yi
1
( 1+ e(Xi)
) (
1+ e(Xi )
)
i=1

This yields the log likelihood:

[ yi log ( ( x ) ) +(1 yi) log ( 1 ( x ))]
n
log ( ) =
i=1

1+exp ( Xi )
[ yiXilog()]
n

i=1

Maximizing the likelihood or the log likelihood has no closed form solution, so a technique like
iteratively reweighted least squares is used to find an estimate of the regression coefficients. We
mainly rely on software results to obtain the estimates

Assumptions of logistic regression

Logistic regression assumes meaningful coding of the variables. Logistic coefficients were
difficult to interpret if not coded meaningfully. The convention for binomial logistic regression is
to code the dependent class of interest as 1 and the other class as o.
Absence of Multicolinerity among explanatory variables.
Logit transformation is linear.
The dependent variable must be categorical.
Large samples are needed than for linear regression because maximum likelihood
coefficients are large sample estimates (the proportion of the sample size to number of
independent variable must be at least 10.
The groups must be mutually exclusive and exhaustive; a case can only be in one group
and every case must be a member of one of the groups.
Statistical tests of individual predictors

The Wald statistic

The Wald statistic is an alternative test, which is commonly used to test the significance of
individual logistic regression coefficients for each independent variable (that is to test null
hypothesis in logistic regression model that a particular Logit coefficient is zero). If the Wald test
is not significant, then it means that an explanatory variable has no statistical significant impact
on the dependent variable. Wald statistic is used to test the significance of individual coefficients
in the model and is calculated as

^ i
Z=
SE( ^ i )

Each Wald statistic is compared with chi-square distribution with 1 degree of freedom. Wald
statistic is easy to calculate but their reliability is questionable, particularly for small samples.

Statistical test of the overall model adequacy

Using Likely hood ratio test

An alternative and used approach to test the significance of a number of explanatory variables is
to use the large likelihood ratio test. The likely hood ratio test uses the ratio of maximized value
of the likely hood function for the full model ( l 1 ) over maximize value of the likely hood

function for the reduced model ( lo )

The hypothesis is stated as

Ho; all the model parameters are zero (the model is not adequate)
Ha; at least one of the model parameter is different from zero (the model is adequate)
The likely hood ratio test statistic equals

G2=2 log ( lol1 )=2 [ log ( lo )log ( l1) ] .

thenit will be compared with X 2 tab withone degree of freedom .

If the calculated value is greater than the tabulated value or if the p-value for the test is less than
the pre-selected level of significance (5%), the null hypothesis is rejected and it can be conclude
that the model is adequate to fit the data.

Ethical consideration

Since research on domestic violence is sensitive issue; it is important raise ethical issue.
Considering this, the researcher applied ethical consideration following WHO guideline on
ethical issue related to domestic violence research to ensure the safety of the respondents as well
as data quality. The study was ethically approved by the ethical committee of Institute of health
science at Debre Berhan University. Above all first consent was asked and the purpose of the
study was explained to the participants. Further, they were told that the study offers benefit to
them and for all married women. Privacy was promoted and respondents were informed that
whatever information they provide would be kept confidential.

Result and Discussion

This section is about analysis and discussion of data gained from married women in IvaNiva
kebele. This section first presents the result and then the discussion will follow.
Descriptive Statistics
Table 1: Frequency Distribution Table (IvaNiva District, 2016)

Variable name Category of variable Number of females percent

Number of no 13 10.9%
children <2 32 26.9%
3-5 49 41.2
>6 25 21%
Female no 30 25.2%
educational level primary 51 42.9%
secondary 38 31.9%
Way of meeting friend 4 3.4%
family 81 68.1%
yourself 34 28.6%
Year live with <10 38 31.9%
husband 10-20 41 34.5%
20-30 26 21.8%
>30 14 11.8%
Husband alcohol no 81 68.1%
consumer Alcohol drink 38 31.9%
Monthly income <1000 33 27.7%
1000-4000 74 62.2%
More than 4000 12 10.1%
Violence from No violence 37 31.1%
there partner violence 82 68.9%

The above table shows that from 119 sampled respondents 27.7% of them were in age category
between18 and 25, 27.7%, 26.7% and 17.6% of them were in age categories of 26-33, 34-42 and
above 42 respectively. Considering numbers of children, (10.9%) of them have no children,
26.9% of them have children less than two, 41.2% of them have children 3-5 and 21% of them
have children greater than 6.

In terms of educational status, 25.2% of respondents have no formal education, (42.9%) of them
have attended education up to primary school and the rest 31.9% of them were have attended up
to secondary school. And finally among the respondents 31.1 % of them have no experienced
violence from their husband in recent times but majority of them (68.9%) said they have
experienced violence in recent times from their intimate partner.

Chi-square test of association

In chi-square test of association, the P-values associated with number of children, way of
meeting, marriage duration, age difference, husband educational status, modern contraceptive
method, husband alcohol consumer and family income are all less than the pre-selected level of
significance, and thus it can be conclude that these variables have statistically significant
association with domestic violence against women. The data does not provide enough evidence
to conclude that age of the women and female educational status has statistically significant
association with violence against married women. Thus these variables are excluded from the
binary logistic regression model.

Binary logistic regression model

To identify the potential risk factors associated with recent domestic violence, we used logistic
regression in which our dichotomous dependent variable was defined as 0 = no episodes of
physical threats or violence from the current male partner in recent times and 1 = one or
more episodes of physical threats or violence in recent times. Coefficients are expressed as odds
ratios relative to the reference category.

The main independent variables considered were two demographic variables (marriage
duration, number of children), five socio-economic variables (household size, educational
status of husband, contraceptive methods, marriage type and income) and one variable
representing husbands risk behavior (drunkenness). Existence of any interaction between
the independent variables (Multicolinerity) was examined using co linearity diagnostic
statistics. Scatter plot of each possible variable suggested the existence of no strong correlations
between the independent variables

Assessing model adequacy

Table 2: The Hosmer and Lemeshow Test Table (IvaNiva District, 2016)

Chi- Degree of freedom p-value

square
4.975 8 .820
The Hosmer and Lemeshow test provided a formal test for whether the predicted probability for
a covariate matches the observed probability. A large p-value indicates a good match and a small
p-value indicates a poor match, which tell us we should look some alternative way to describe
the relationship between this covariate and the outcome variable. The Hosmer and Lemeshow
goodness of fit test has p-value greater than 0.05. The test indicates sufficient evidence that the
model fit the data adequately [16].
Testing the significance of individual model predictors

Table 3: The Parameter Estimation Table (IvaNiva District, 2016)

Standard Wald Degree of P-value

Variables coefficient error freedom Exp(B)
Number of child 3.482 3 .023
Less than 2 children .592 1.485 .159 1 .000 1.807
3-5 children 1.669 1.170 2.034 1 .014 5.305
More than 5 children 1.199 .854 1.973 1 .016 3.317
Marriage type 1.587 2 .042
Mutual agreement (1) -.350 1.615 .047 1 .028 .705
Other choice (2) .974 .863 1.275 1 .029 2.649
Marriage duration .518 3 .015
10-20 years .431 1.975 .048 1 .027 1.539
20-30 years -.027 1.585 .000 1 .047 .974
More than 30 years -.502 1.195 .176 1 .044 .605
Age difference .155 2 .025
3 -6 years difference .381 1.039 .135 1 .014 1.464
More than 6 years .150 .913 .027 1 .000 1.162
Husband education 4.263 2 .019
Primary education -1.438 .918 2.457 1 .017 .237
Secondary education -1.481 .745 3.947 1 .047 .227
contraceptive 2.323 3 .008
Modern -.267 .961 .077 1 .019 .766
Natural methods 1.088 1.084 1.008 1 .015 2.968
Other choice -.044 .906 .002 1 .018 .957
Alcohol consumer(no) -.242 .589 .169 1 .011 .785
income 9.490 2 .009
Less than 1000 birr .606 .928 .426 1 .014 1.833
1000-4000 birr 2.052 .841 5.953 1 .015 7.785
Constant -1.434 1.901 .569 1 .451 .238

Table 3 indicates that the p-values of number of children, way of meeting, marriage age, age
difference, income, contraceptive usage, alcohol consumption, educational status of husband are
all less than the pre-selected level of significance. Thus all these variables have significant effect
on the response variables. Furthermore the coefficient of less than 2 children is positive which
indicates that those women who have less than 2 children are more exposed to domestic violence
than those women who have no children. And also those women who have children between 3 to
5 and those women who have more than 5 childrens are more exposed to domestic violence than
those women who have no children.
The odds of women who meet their husband through family to experience domestic violence are
0.705 less likely than those women who meet their husband through friends. But the odds of
women who meet their husband by their choice to experience domestic violence are 2.649 more
likely than those women who meet their husband through friends.

The odds of women whose marriage goes for 10-20 years to experience domestic violence are
1.539 more likely than those women whose marriage is only less than 10 years. Furthermore the
coefficient of marriage age 20 -30 years and marriage age above 30 years is negative which
indicates that those women whose marriage goes 20-30 years and those womens whose
marriage goes for more than 30 years are less exposed to domestic violence than those womens
whose marriage is only less than 10 years.

Age difference of husband and wife is also significant variable indicating those women whose
age differs by 3 to 6 years from their husbands are more exposed to domestic violence than those
women whose age difference to their husbands is less than 3 years. And also those women whose
age differs by more than 6 years from their husbands are more exposed to domestic violence than
those women whose age difference to husbands is less than 3 years. Educational status of
husbands is also another variable that have significant effect on domestic violence that is those
women who married educated person are at low risk to experience domestic violence.
The other significant variable is alcohol consumption of husbands and it has negative coefficient
which indicates that those women who married non alcoholic person are less exposed to
domestic violence that those women who got married to alcoholic person. Finally the odds of
women whose average monthly family income more than 4000 birr are less exposed to domestic
violence than those women whose family earn less than 1000 birr.

Discussion
In previous sections, the results obtained from descriptive statistics, chi-square test of association
and the binary logistic regression were presented. This section tries to discuss the finding of this
paper by relating with other similar works. The result of this paper indicates that among the
respondents 31.1 % of them have no experienced violence from their husband in recent times but
majority of them (68.9%) said they have experienced violence in recent times from their intimate
partner. This result is consistent with WHO which reports that 71% of women had experienced
either physical (50%) or sexual (59%) violence by a partner in Ethiopia. Furthermore, 39% of
these women had never spoken to anyone about the violence and more than a third of those who
had remained silent said they considered the violence to be normal.[1]. other study which was
conducted in Meskan and Mareko in Guraghe zone found that the lifetime prevalence of
husband/intimate partner violence was 72.0 % [95 % CI: 70.0 %-73.9 %].These figures are
sound to be higher than the finding obtained in Zambia, Colombia, Peru, India and Dominican
Republic where almost half of women had domestic violence by their husband and also specific
study done in Ethiopia (Gondar Zuria district) almost half of women had domestic violence by
their husband [17,18]

This paper also found that those women who married non alcoholic person are less exposed to
domestic violence that those women who got married to alcoholic person. This result is also
reflected in different papers which were conducted in different parts of Ethiopia. For instance
Feseha studied about domestic violence in Shimelba refugee camp, Northern Ethiopia and found
that Women whose husband drinks alcohol, chew khat or smoke cigarette to experience domestic
violence were higher than their counter parts [19]. And Semahegn also conclude that Husband
alcohol use, being pregnant, decision making power and annual income were predictors of
domestic violence in Fagitalekoma Woreda, Awi zone, Amhara regional state, North Western
Ethiopia [21].
Educational status of husbands is also related with domestic violence that is Women who married
to educated person are at low risk to experience domestic violence than women who married to
non educated person. The same conclusion is also drawn by Negussie more women living with
a literate spouse in rural communities had experienced physical violence in Butajira district
[22]. Interestingly age of women was turned out to be insignificant in this study even though
Abeya on his study found that older women were nearly four times [AOR 3.4, 95 % CI 1.2 -8.9]
to experience domestic violence than relatively younger women [23]. This may be related to the
respondents readiness not to tell us the exact age because of cultural issues or it can be related to
statistical interaction between predictors. But two factors related to age; marriage duration and
age difference between wives and husbands are found to be significantly associated with
domestic violence against women. As the couples stay long, the risk of domestic violence will
decreases and also the risks of violence are low for those women who married to a person in the
same age. During the early years of marriage, couples frequent violence and divorce is common.
Tilson shows that 45% of first marriages in Ethiopia end in divorce within 30 years, and two
third of women who divorce do so within the first five years of marriage[24]. With
increasing age and longer duration in union, both husband and wife get to know each other and
have faith in each other and tendency of misunderstanding each other gets reduced. Moreover,
they gain respect in the community they live in and hence the likelihood of husband-wife
violence declines [2].

This paper also revealed that educational status of women has no statistical significant effect on
domestic violence against women which is consistent with study from Mozambique [15]. This is
true in societies where education alone may have not been sufficient to counteract traditional
gender roles. Other factor significantly and negatively associated with domestic violence is
monthly average family income which can be conclude that having high income is associated
with low risk of domestic violence to women. This result is the same with the finding in India
and Serbia which concludes that higher family income was negatively associated with domestic
violence [17] and Households low socioeconomic status in comparison to high was significantly
associated with intimate partner violence [18] respectively.

Marriage type emerged as a very strong predictor of the risk of domestic violence.
Women whose marriage was arranged by someone else were 2.649 times more likely to
experience domestic violence and those who were married with mutual agreement were about
less likely to experience domestic violence compared to the reference category (married
with family choice ). Almost consistent result was found by Assefa who concludes that Women
whose marriage was arranged by someone else were 1.9 times more likely to experience
domestic violence and those who were forced to marry were about ten times likely to
experience violence (p<.01) compared to the reference category (married with mutual
agreement)[24]

Conclusion

Although this study is based on a small sample size, it has underlined the severe situation
of women in terms of the violence they experience in the marital home. The result from this
study indicates that about seven in every ten women have experienced domestic violence in the
study area. And also numbers of children, marriage type, marriage duration, age difference,
husband educational status, usage of modern contraceptive method, husband alcohol
consumption status and family income all have statistically significant association with domestic
violence against women in IvaNiva Kebele. Having relatively small number of children, married
with mutual agreement, married to non alcoholic person, married to a person in the same age
category, married to educated person, having relatively high family income and using modern
contraceptive method are all reduce the risk of women to domestic violence.

The results presented describe a phenomenon that is very common but still little known: violence
against women committed by their intimate partners, as revealed by its great magnitudes of
prevalence, severity and recurrence. Furthermore, even if new analyses and studies are
recommended, the knowledge now available makes it legitimate to consider that there is an
urgent need to implement, supervise and evaluate public policies that are specially directed
towards intimate partner violence.

Consent for publication

Not relevant

Availability of data and materials

The data will be used for further studies in the future. Therefore, I cannot share it now. I hope
you will understand me
Competing interests

The author read and approved the final manuscript and declares that have no competing interest

Author contributions

Natnael had made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or
analysis and interpretation of data, and revised the paper critically for important
intellectual content.
Funding
I am from Ethiopia. A low income country
Acknowledgment
This study was carried out with the financial support obtained from Debre Berhan University.
My special gratitude goes to IvaNiva Kebele administrative office for facilitating conditions for
data collection. I would also like to forward special thanks to the study participants without
whom this study would not have been accomplished.

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