Demographic characteristics’ associations with domestic violence against women in India

Abstract

Violence against women by their husband (VAWH) is an extending human rights and public health problem. The present report examines the associations of demographic factors such as age, education level, marital status, employment status, residence type with the VAWH in India. The report considers Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data for India, where the respondents are both male and female. In the current study, the associations are accounted for from the data related to female respondents only. It is derived herein that the correlation between the education level (EDL) and the VAWH, which is denoted by r(EDL, VAWH), and is measured for the considered data as r(EDL, VAWH)= --0.52831, concluding that VAWH is lower for higher education. Correlation between age, or marital status, or employment status with VAWH is insignificantly positive, while with residence it is insignificantly negative. The report concludes that higher education level is a protective factor for VAWH, while other demographic factors are insignificant for this data set. Further studies are important to draw more conclusions.