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Domestic Violence Against Married Women in Egypt

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Abstract

We estimated the associations of social learning in childhood, marital resources and constraints, and community gender stratification and norms with women’s risk of physical domestic violence in a national sample of 5,272 married Egyptian women. Women who experienced corporal punishment or maltreatment as children had higher odds of such violence. An increase in women’s household-standard-of-living was associated with lower odds of such violence. Wives with unusually less and unusually more schooling than their spouse had higher odds of such violence, and the wives of paternal cousins had lower odds of such violence. Measures of community gender stratification and norms were inconsistently and weakly associated with such violence. Women’s marital resources and constraints accounted for most of their risk of experiencing physical domestic violence.

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Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0550387. Comments from anonymous reviewers and assistance from Ms. Teresa Parker in the preparation of this paper are greatly appreciated.

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Correspondence to Kathryn M. Yount.

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Yount, K.M., Li, L. Domestic Violence Against Married Women in Egypt. Sex Roles 63, 332–347 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9793-3

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