Contributing factors for intimate partner violence among married women in Palpa district, Lumbini, Nepal

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is any form of violence that occurs on a physical, sexual, emotional, or financial level between partners, whether they are currently or were previously coupled. Intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual violence against women are violations of their human rights. Title of the study: Contributing factors for intimate partner violence among married women in Palpa district, Lumbini, Nepal. Objectives: To identify the prevalence and contributing factors of intimate partner violence among married women. To assess the relationship between women’s empowerment and intimate partner violence among married women. Materials and method: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was adopted for the study. Sample size was 352 and purposive sampling technique adopted to select the sample. Data was collected by face to face interview using pre-tested questionnaire during April, May, June and July 2023. Questionnaire related to socio-demographic information, standard valid tool Conflict Tactics Scale tools (CTS) was used as instrument. Data were analyzed using descriptive inferential statistics and multivariate regression with SPSS version 22. Results: Out of the 352 respondents, nearly half proportion of respondents (43.2%) were 30-39 years. Half of the respondents (50.3%) had low decision-making levels. Likewise, the lowest proportion of the respondents (16.2%) had a moderate level. More than half of the respondents (58.5 %) had a low level of empowerment whereas only 3.4% of the respondents had a high level of empowerment. Regarding violence, physical was 20.2%, followed by sexual 24.1%, emotional 33.2%, controlling behavior 53.7%, and overall intimate partner violence 68.5%. There was a statistical relationship between intimate partner violence and women’s age (p=<0.010*), duration of marriage (p=<0.009*), socioeconomic class (p=<0.01*), member of organization (p=0.005*), bank account (p= 0.006*), empowerment (p=0.020*), husband alcohol habit (p=<0.01*) and husband smoking habit (p=<0.01*). Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study is concluded that more empowered women had less experiences with intimate partner violence whereas less empowered had more experience of emotional, sexual, and physical abuse as well as dominating actions from their close relationships. Having children, household decision- making and property ownership had no noticeable effect on the prevalence of intimate relationship violence.