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INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE AND CONTRACEPTIVE USE IN INDIA: THE MODERATING INFLUENCE OF CONFLICTING FERTILITY PREFERENCES AND CONTRACEPTIVE INTENTIONS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2017

Walter Forrest ,
Dharmalingam Arunachalam  and
Kannan Navaneetham
Walter Forrest*
Affiliation:
School of Social Science and Institute for Social Science Research, University of Queensland, Australia ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course, Australia
Dharmalingam Arunachalam
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Australia
Kannan Navaneetham
Affiliation:
Department of Population Studies, University of Botswana, Botswana
*
1 Corresponding author. Email: w.forrest@uq.edu.au
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Summary

Several studies report that women exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) are less likely to use contraception, but the evidence that violence consistently constrains contraceptive use is inconclusive. One plausible explanation for this ambiguity is that the effects of violence on contraceptive use depend on whether couples are likely to have conflicting attitudes to it. In particular, although some men may engage in violence to prevent their partners from using contraception, they are only likely to do so if they have reason to oppose its use. Using a longitudinal follow-up to the Indian National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2), conducted among a sample of rural, married women of childbearing age, this study investigated whether the relationship between IPV and contraceptive use is contingent on whether women’s contraceptive intentions contradict men’s fertility preferences. Results indicate that women experiencing IPV are less likely to undergo sterilization, but only if they intended to use contraception and their partners wanted more children (Average Marginal Effect (AME)=−0.06; CI=−0.10, −0.01). Violence had no effect on sterilization among women who did not plan to use contraception (AME=−0.02; CI=−0.06, 0.03) or whose spouses did not want more children (AME=−0.01; CI=−0.9, 0.06). These results imply that violence enables some men to resolve disagreements over the use of contraception by imposing their fertility preferences on their partners. They also indicate that unmet need for contraception could be an intended consequence of violence.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , March 2018 , pp. 212 - 226
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2017 

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