Determinants of gender-based violence (GBV) among women in Zambia : evidence from the 2007, 2013/14 and 2018 Zambia demographic & health surveys (ZDHS).
Loading...
Date
2024
Authors
Masha, Maguswi
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
Gender-Based Violence can have a devastating impact on the health of women and girls, depriving them of the opportunity to live a safe and secure life, restricting their access to land, education, and other productive resources. This creates a power imbalance that prevents women and girls from having full control of their lives. As a result, women are disproportionately affected by poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, and HIV/AIDs, while their participation in other spheres of life such as politics and decision-making is limited. The study utilized data from the Zambia Demographic Health Surveys (ZDHS) conducted
in 2007, 2013/14, and 2018, focusing on women in the reproductive age group (15-49 years). Analytical methods including descriptive analysis, Chi-square tests, Fisher’s exact tests, and multivariate logistic regression were employed to test associations with socio economic and demographic factors and establish relationships. Findings revealed that the highest prevalence of sexual GBV reported by women occurred in the age group 45-49 years, represented by 16.6% in the 2018 survey year, 35-39 years with 18.2% in the 2013/14 ZDHS, and 19.4% in the 2007 ZDHS. Only the age group in the 2007 survey year showed statistical significance with a p-value of 0.012. Regarding emotional violence, age group 40-44 recorded the highest prevalence at 34.0% in 2018 ZDHS, while
35-39 was the highest in the 2013/4 ZDHS at 34.0% and 25-29 in the 2007 ZDHS at 27.8%. Age with both severe and emotional violence was statistically significant in the survey years p-value (<0.05). Education was statistically significant in all survey years as the p-values were less than 0.05. Results of chi-square test examining the association between socio-economic and demographic factors and emotional violence in the three survey years, 2007, 2013/14 and 2018 revealed that age, area of residence, educational attainment, marital status, and household wealth index were statistically associated with emotional violence in all survey years, with a p-value less than 0.05. The results also showed that age, educational attainment, marital status was significant in all survey years when employed to determine the association between socio-economic and demographic characteristics of respondents with severe violence. Religion was only significant with severe violence and socio-economic characteristic in 2013/14 ZDHS (p-value 0.040). A multinomial logistic regression model was utilized to assess the likelihood of a woman experiencing various forms of GBV, using the 2013/14 ZDHS data. The independent variables considered were, age of the women, residence, education, wealth index, religion, and region. The results show that age and residence are the most prominent factors
associated with emotional violence. There is a positive and significant association between age and emotional violence, with older age groups between 30-44 and 40-44 years experiencing higher levels of emotional violence as indicated by higher coefficients 0.09 to 0.11. The p-values confirm that these findings are statistically significant, in addition, there is a negative and significant association between rural residence and emotional violence, as indicated by a negative coefficient (-0.07) and a p-value of 0.00. This suggests that women living in rural areas are less likely to experience emotional violence by their partners than women living in urban areas. It is evident that gender-based violence among women of reproductive age group 15-49 years in Zambia is influenced by socio-economic and demographic factors. Factors associated with GBV were highlighted, therefore, any interventions aimed at curbing the
vice should be designed to address the factors associated with the vice.
Description
Thesis of Master of Science Degree in Public Health