Factors associated with men’s perpetration of physical violence against intimate partners in India

Men’s perpetration of violence against their female partners is widely recognized as a serious social problem. Yet research on intimate partner violence (IPV) has been primarily focused on women’s exposure and not on men’s perpetration. This paper fills this gap and explores the intensity of and the factors associated with men’s perpetration of violence against their intimate partners. In 2013, a cross-sectional survey with multistage sampling approach was conducted in seven states of India, including 9,135 men. The study adapted the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) tool. This paper analyses data from 6,081 currently married men included in the survey. Multinomial and logistic regression were applied to determine factors associated with the intensity of physical violence perpetration in the men’s lifetime and perpetration in the past 12 months, respectively. Over one-third of the men reported ever perpetrating physical violence (15% often and 19% moderately), and almost half of them (48%) had perpetrated physical violence in the past 12 months. Education, substance abuse, and experience of violence (including bullying) during childhood stand out as the most important factors associated with violence perpetration among men.