Prevalence and Correlates of Experience of Physical and Sexual Intimate Partner Violence among Men and Women in Eastern DRC

Abstract

This manuscript uses large-scale survey data to examine the prevalence and correlates of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), namely in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces. We examine two form of IPV: physical and sexual. The data show that two of every five women and more than one quarter of men had reportedly ever experienced physical IPV while one quarter of women and 15.7 percent of men reported ever experiencing sexual IPV. The correlates of IPV differ for men and women and depend on the type of IPV. For men, the strongest correlates of physical IPV include current employment, education and recent experience of sexual IPV. The strongest correlates for experiencing sexual violence among men were young age, problematic use of alcohol, gender-equitable attitudes, province of residence, and recent experience of physical IPV. For women, young age, low education, gender-equitable attitudes, partner problematic use of alcohol, partner controlling behaviors, recent experience of sexual IPV, and recent experience of public humiliation were the correlates of physical IPV. The strongest correlates of sexual IPV for women include province of residence, partner problematic use of alcohol, partner controlling behaviors, and recent experience of physical IPV. The programmatic implications of the findings are discussed.