Abstract:
OBJECTIVES : To describe associations between men’s
poor mental health (depressive and post-traumatic
stress
symptomatology) and their perpetration of intimate partner
violence (IPV) and non-partner
sexual violence (NPSV), and
women’s mental health and their experiences of IPV and
NPSV in five settings in the Global South.
DESIGN : A pooled analysis of data from baseline
interviews with men and women participating in five
violence against women and girls prevention intervention
evaluations.
SETTING : Three sub-Saharan
African countries (South
Africa, Ghana and Rwanda), and one Middle Eastern
country, the occupied Palestinian territories.
PARTICIPANTS : 7021 men and 4525 women 18+ years old
from a mix of self-selecting
and randomly selected
household surveys.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES : All studies measured
depression symptomatology using the Centre for
Epidemiological Studies-Depression,
and the Harvard
Trauma Scale for post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD)
symptoms among men and women. IPV and NPSV were
measured using items from modified WHO women’s health
and domestic violence and a UN multicountry study to
assess perpetration among men, and experience among
women.
FINDINGS : Overall men’s poor mental health was
associated with increased odds of perpetrating physical
IPV and NPSV. Specifically, men who had more depressive
symptoms had increased odds of reporting IPV (adjusted OR (aOR)=2.13; 95%CI 1.58 to 2.87) and NPSV
(aOR=1.62; 95% CI 0.97 to 2.71) perpetration compared
with those with fewer symptoms. Men reporting PTSD
had higher odds of reporting IPV (aOR=1.87; 95% CI
1.44 to 2.43) and NPSV (aOR=2.13; 95% CI 1.49 to 3.05)
perpetration compared with those without PTSD. Women
who had experienced IPV (aOR=2.53; 95% CI 2.18 to 2.94)
and NPSV (aOR=2.65; 95% CI 2.02 to 3.46) had increased
odds of experiencing depressive symptoms compared with
those who had not.
CONCLUSIONS : Interventions aimed at preventing IPV and
NPSV perpetration and experience must account for
the mental health of men as a risk factor, and women’s
experience.
Description:
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : De-identified
individual participant data for Stepping
Stones and Creating Futures (South Africa), Sonke CHANGE Trial (South Africa),
and Evaluation of the RRS-COMBAT
intervention (Ghana) and oPt intervention,
are available to anyone who wishes to access the data for any purpose at https://
medat.samrc.ac.za/index.php/catalog/WW. De-identified
individual participant data
from the Indashyikirwa Couples Surveys (Rwanda) are available from the Principal
Investigator of the study, Dr Kristin Dunkle: kristin. dunkle@ mrc. ac. za, but may
require permission from the Rwandan Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion
(MIGEPROF) before transfer.