The Mediating Effect of Traditional Gender Beliefs on the Relationship between Gender Disparities and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration risk may be increased or reduced within a couple depending on adherence to traditional gender roles. The purpose of this study is to determine how gender role disparities (when a woman earns more or is more educated than a man) are associated with men’s IPV perpetration and whether traditional gender belief adherence is a mediator for these associations. Survey data from the United Nations Multi-Country Study on Men and Violence in Asia and the Pacific were used to examine differences in IPV perpetration among a sample of 4,303 men, for relationships where the woman earns more or is more educated than the man as well as traditional gender beliefs as a mediator between gender role disparities and perpetration. The findings indicate that gender disparities predict IPV perpetration, and the effect is mediated through traditional gender beliefs. However, the direction of the effects differed for different types of disparities, with income disparities increasing the risk of IPV perpetration and educational disparities reducing perpetration. Efforts to increase women’s education may lower their male partner’s risk of perpetrating IPV, while economic interventions increasing women’s earnings above their male partners may have the unintended consequence of increasing risk of IPV.

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