Negative attitudes related to violence against women: gender and ethnic differences among youth living in Serbia

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to identify to what extent negative attitudes towards intimate partner violence against women are present among young women and men living in Serbia, in Roma and non-Roma settlements. Methods: We used the data from the 2010 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey conducted in Serbia, for the respondents who were 15–24 years old. Regression analyses were used to examine the association between judgmental attitudes, socio-demographic factors and life satisfaction. Results: In Roma settlements, 34.8% of men and 23.6% of women believed that under certain circumstances men are justified to be violent towards wives, while among non-Roma it was 5.6 and 4.0%, respectively. These negative attitudes were significantly associated with lower educational level, lower socio-economic status and being married. In multivariate model, in both Roma and non-Roma population women who were not married were less judgmental, while the richest Roma men were least judgmental (OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.18–0.87). Conclusions: Violence prevention activities have to be focused on promoting gender equality among youth in vulnerable population groups such as Roma, especially through social support, strengthening their education and employment.