Recent abuse from in-laws and associations with adverse experiences during the crisis among rural Ivorian women: Extended families as part of the ecological model

Abstract

Violence against women in the aftermath of conflict represents a growing area of concern. However, little is known about violence perpetrated by a woman's in-laws and how these experiences may be related to adverse experiences during a crisis. Therefore, guided by the ecological model, the objectives of the following analysis were to (1) document adverse experiences during the crisis among rural Ivorian women and (2) investigate the association between such experiences and abuse perpetrated by partners' extended families, among a sample of women residing in rural Côte d'Ivoire. Utilising data from a baseline survey conducted in 2010, we generated descriptive statistics and used generalised estimating equations to assess the relationships of interest. Women whose family was victimised during the crisis had 1.7 times the odds of reporting past-year in-law abuse compared to those women whose families did not experience such adversity (95% CI: 1.1–2.4), and women who experienced a personal form of adversity had twice the odds of reporting past-year in-law abuse compared to women who did not report victimisation (95% CI: 1.2–3.2). Being forced to flee was not statistically associated with in-law abuse. Findings underscore the importance of addressing in-law abuse in order to promote women's health in post-conflict settings.

Keywords:

• gender-based violence
• war
• Côte d'Ivoire
• humanitarian aid
• ecological

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the World Bank's State and Peace-building Fund, Contract #1007007040 (PI J Gupta). This work was supported, in part, by Yale University's Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA), through grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, Paul Cleary, Ph.D., Principal Investigator (P30MH062294). The views presented are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank, NIMH, NIH, or IRC. Study sponsors had no role in the planning of the study or in writing/approving the manuscript. The authors thank the women for participating in the study.